


Tangled Gold

by Pastaaddict



Series: Hetalia Tales [9]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers, Tangled (2010)
Genre: Alfred will be called Steve Rogers for a while, Arthur is searching for Alfred, Being Chased, Berlitz is Max, Falling In Love, Flying Mint Bunny is a big help, Getting to Know Each Other, Kidnapping, Lost Alfred, Multi, Natasha forces Alfred to help her, Natasha raised by Katya, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rebirth, originally Posted on FanFiction.Net under the same name
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2020-11-02 02:40:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 38,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20594240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pastaaddict/pseuds/Pastaaddict
Summary: Natasha, a girl with long, magic hair has lived all her life in a tower, watching lights floating in the sky every year on her birthday and vows one day she will see them up close. She gets her chance when a thief climbs her tower and she forces him to take her to see them





	1. A Series Of Unfortunate Evnts

**Author's Note:**

> At long last, Alfred's story. Enjoy.....

** **Chapter 1 : A Series of Unfortunate Events** **

  


** _ Previously ~ _ **

  


_ ( _ _ _ Talking about Natalya... _ _ _ ) _

"Nobody is all bad," Lukas stated.

"She is!" Arthur replied, contemptuously.

* * *

_ _ At Arthur's home ... _ _

  


"Stand in the circle and you MUST hold hands." Francis took each of his son's hands and led them into the middle of the circle. Arthur raised his wand and began to chant the spell that would sent his family sixteen years into the future in a voice so low his words could not be heard. When he finished, the circle began to glow.

"LIBBY!" The little rabbit had jumped out of Alfred's arms and bolted. Alfred let go of Francis's hand and ran after her.

"No! Alfred!" Arthur shouted as he grabbed Alfred and pushed him back to the circle. "Take hold of your father's hand. NOW!"

Alfred ran back to the circle and reached for Francis's hand. Arthur could not tell if Alfred had managed to catch hold before he was blinded by a flash of light. When the light faded, the trio had vanished, leaving Arthur praying that Alfred had managed to catch hold of his father's hand in time.

* * *

_ _ Sixteen years later... _ _

  


_ _ Magic sword, take speedy flight. _ _

_ _Destroy the evil and save the light._ _

  


Natalya screeched as she felt the sword bury itself in her heart. She thrashed to try and dislodge it but to no avail. As her dragon body began to fall, it shrank as the magic in the sword began to leech away the darkness within her and all the evil she had committed past through her mind. To the innocent Princes Lovino and Feliciano, to a hundred others and eventually to her own brother and sister, Ivan and Katyusha. How could she love her own brother in such a way? Believe that her sister could? Her last thought was of how glad she was that she had not killed them as her body finally disintegrated, leaving behind only her cloak, the goodness left in her soul and her white magic.

Actually her last thought before her soul and magic sank into the ground to be absorbed into a flower seed was...

  


_ _ Forgive me! _ _

* * *

Arthur left the celebration of the returning home of Prince Feliciano as soon as possible to reach his own home. To wait for his husband and sons to arrive from the past. It had been sixteen years since he had last seen them and he could not wait.

His home was coated in sixteen years of dust but a little magic blew that away and he sat down to await his family's arrival.

Then he felt the tell-tale vibration of magic in the air and stood away from the magic circle that still faintly showed on the floor from when he sent them through time in the first place. There was a faint glow that grew into blinding intensity. Then it faded, leaving human beings in its place.

Francis blinked and saw Arthur in front of him. He knew they had been separated for sixteen years but to Francis, it was like they had not been apart.

"Mon chère...." he began but stopped when Arthur's face filled with horror.

"WHERE'S ALFRED?" he screamed. Francis realised that he could not feel Alfred's hand in his. Only Matthew's. He looked down to his right and there was no sign of his blonde, sky-blue eyed, energetic son. Francis stared at his right hand as if Alfred's would appear in it if he looked at it hard enough.

"We didn't join hands in time," he said, blankly and looked up at his husband. "Arthur, I'm sorry!. I didn't reach him in time!" Arthur seemed frozen in shock. Matthew's violet eyes began to fill with tears as he realised his twin was not there.

"Papa, Dad," he sobbed. "Where's Alfie gone?" He did not want to lose his brother, they had been through so much together. Losing their parents to fever and being put into an orphanage, they were all each other had until they were sent into the woods where a cannibalistic Fae lived and the two men he came to call Papa and Dad came with their friends to rescue them and became their new parents. He could not lose his brother.

Arthur finally moved and gathered the eight year old in his arms and hugged him tight. Francis hugged them both.

"I don't know, Matthew," Arthur admitted, crying unashamedly. "But I'll find him. I promise."

They stayed like that for a long time.

* * *

_ _ A month later... _ _

Lovino felt confident enough to begin his journey home after his transformation from crow back to human and gathered clothes, food, money and jewels. He built a make shift drawbridge to leave Natalya's castle unaware that he was being watched by someone he thought was long gone.

Katya watched as Lovino left and looked down at her hands. She was ageing again and Natalya was no longer around to prevent it. If she could not find another way to hold back her age, she would die.

Nothing here could help her. Unlike Natalya, Katya had no magic of her own. She could use magically infused objects but could not produce magic herself and the power to reverse age did not reside in any objects in the castle. Only Natalya had that power and she was gone.

Katya followed Lovino's example and she also gathered supplies and gold and left the castle to go in search of restoring her youth.

* * *

A few weeks later, she had done better in her travelling than Lovino who had become stuck in Madrid as she had made it to the coast and the seaport where she heard some Italian sailors talking about a strange flower that had grown on the spot where the Dark Sorceress had died, that resisted wild weather and frost. Following her instincts, she used some of her gathered wealth to buy passage to Italy.

* * *

It was dark when Katya made her way to the foot of the cliff from which Natalya fell and it was not hard for her to find the flower because it glowed in the dark. She followed the silvery glow and knelt down beside it. A fool could see the flower was magical but could she use it? Her time was short so this was her only chance.

When Katya had first met Natalya, Natalya restored Katya's youth because Katya had a young grandson who needed a guardian. When the grandson grew up and went to sea and Katya grew old again, Natalya refused to restore her youth again because it was against nature for humans to be restored like that and the more it was done, the more it was needed. The human body became addicted to youth magic.

What Katya had done so long ago got Natalya to restore her youth again but Natalya became cold, cruel and unstable and she would only reverse Katya's ageing so much and she would only do it when Katya was close to dying and ONLY so Katya could continue to serve her. If only Katya had not made that mistake.

Katya thought about the spell Natalya would cast on her to make her younger again. The flower was magically infused. Could it work? The first line of the spell was _ Magic, gleam and glow. _ Perhaps a slight alteration?

_ _ Flower, gleam and glow. Let your power shine _ _

_ _ Make the clock reverse. Bring back what once was mine. _ _

_ _ What once was mine. _ _

The flower began to shine and glowing spores drifted up to bathe Katya and her skin lost its sallowness and smoothed out. She watched as her hands became as they had been in her youth and her faded red-brown hair regained its colour and body. She gave a short giggle of joy as she realised she had found her fountain of youth.

She dug up the flower and wrapped up the roots then disappeared into the night.

* * *

_ _ A year and a half later... _ _

Prince Feliciano was into his fifth month of pregnancy when he fell ill. His worried husband, Prince Ludwig, summoned Lukas, one of the Fae who had granted Feliciano the gift of child-bearing, to examine Feli.

"What's wrong with him?" Ludwig asked when Lukas left Feli's chambers. Lukas struggled to explain what was happening.

"While Feli carries your child," he replied. "His life is bound up with the life of the child but something has happened. It's rare but it does occur."

"What has occurred?" Ludwig wished Lukas would just come out with it.

"Your child does not have a soul!"

Of all the things Ludwig expected Lukas to say, that was not even on the list. His child did not have a soul! What exactly did that mean?

"Without a soul," Lukas clarified. "Your child will eventually die. And Feli too."

That was too horrible for Ludwig to contemplate. To live without Feli after everything they had been through! Fate could not be that cruel.

"Is there anything you can do to save him?" he asked. "Please!" Lukas took a deep breath.

"There's nothing I can do with my magic," he replied. "I can't just create a soul and that's what we need but there is something that can be done. We need the flower!"

"The flower?" Ludwig was confused.

"The flower that grew at the spot where Natalya died," Lukas explained. "When we tested the flower, we told you it was white magic but what we didn't tell you was it also contained a soul."

"Why didn't you tell us this?"

"We thought if you knew, you might destroy the flower out of fear," Lukas replied, candidly. "Arthur, Vladimir and I had the premonition that the soul would be important. It seems we were right."

"But the flower disappeared over a year ago."

"Which means we must find it!"

* * *

Soldiers and servants from the three kingdoms of Italy, Germania and Spain were sent out to look for the flower and they went far and wide but the flower was closer than they imagine.

Katya had replanted the flower at the top of the cliff that Natalya had fallen from. No one went up the cliff and Ludwig had only done so because he had been forced to. She wove a cover of leaves and twigs so from the ground it just look like a shrub and, for a while, the flower escaped detection.

But Katya's luck ran out!

Katya only went to the flower at night to renew her youth. She had to do it regularly for, as much as she used the magic to become young, she seemed to age at a much faster rate. She thought perhaps it was because Natalya had probably stabilised her ageing and Katya did not know how to do that.

She uncovered the flower and sang the spell. The flower spores flowed over her and she regained her vigour, unknowing that the flower's hiding place had been revealed.

A lieutenant and a trio of soldiers were making their way home from another failed attempt to find the flower when one of the soldiers spotted a glow at the top of the cliff near the castle and pointed it out to his superior. The lieutenant decided to check it out to see if it was a threat to the safety of the castle and they made their way to the top of the cliff.

Katya heard people coming, put the cover back over the flower and ran, not realising that, when she swung her bag over her shoulder it hit the cover and knocked it away. She hid behind a shrub as the soldiers came into sight and that was when she realised that her precious, youth-restoring flower was exposed.

And there was no time to go back.

The soldiers came into sight of the silvery glow and could not believe their eyes when they finally located what the whole kingdom had been looking for.

"We found it," the lieutenant breathed. They immediately dug the flower up and wrapped the roots, then they carried it away while Katya watched with growing fury.

* * *

Prince Ludwig stood by anxiously as Lukas dropped the flower into a potion he had prepared and they watched it dissolve and turn the potion silver. Lukas then poured the potion into a goblet and gave it to Ludwig.

Ludwig took the potion to Feli's sick room when he had grown sicker and was too ill to leave his bed. Ludwig sat beside his husband with Lukas standing in the background.

"We found it, Feli," he said. Feliciano looked up at Ludwig with exhausted eyes in an almost white face.

"Ve ~," he replied, weakly. Ludwig put his arm around Feli's shoulders, lifted him up and put the goblet to his lips. Feli could only take small sips and it took a while for him to drink the whole potion but when he finished Ludwig laid him back down to rest and Feli went to sleep.

"What now?" Ludwig asked Lukas.

"Now we wait!"

* * *

Feliciano recovered quickly and Lukas confirmed that the soul that had resided in the flower was now absorbed into his unborn child. The whole kingdom rejoiced when he safely gave birth to a baby girl. She had blonde, almost white hair and blue eyes with a hint of purple. A week after she was born, Ludwig and Feliciano released a lantern, a gift from the Kingdom of China, into the sky.

"We still need to name her," Ludwig said as they watched the lantern climb into the air.

"Ve~, I know," Feli replied, cuddling the new princess as she slept in his arms. "But we have time."

As it turned out, they did not!

* * *

The day _ IT _happened, Ludwig had a gift for his new daughter. The day she was born he had commissioned the Royal Jeweller to make a crown for her and the jeweller worked night and day to get it ready. A beautiful crown made of gold with petal-shaped pink and green diamonds. The baby giggled and reached for it, her eyes drawn to the glittering stones. Feli laughed as Ludwig put it on her head and it fell down, stopped only by her ears.

A puppy of one of Ludwig's dogs wandered in, drawn to the laughter, and toddled up to the family. He knew that the tall blonde man led his pack, the brunette was his mate and, by the scent, the little blonde creature was their pup and he wondered if she would like to play with him.

Ludwig spotted the puppy he had named Berlitz (after his sire) and picked him up. He held the little dog up to his daughter who giggled and patted his soft fur. Berlitz licked her face and she giggled more.

Yes, Berlitz thought, he would remember her scent and they would be friends forever.

But their friendship was cut short that night!

* * *

Katya waited until everyone had settled down for the night and crept through the castle, avoiding the night guards as she made her way to the nursery. What she was considering had only a chance of being right but she was desperate enough to take that chance. She had grown dangerously old and on the verge of dying.

She crept into the nursery, keeping as quiet as possible as the Princes were asleep in the next chamber. She moved past the table that held the new crown, silently to the crib where the baby princess slept, moved the sun symbol baby mobile above it away and looked down at the little blonde head, praying that she was right as she took a lock of the baby's hair on her aged and wizened finger and sang in a creaky voice.

  


_ _ Flower, gleam and glow. Let your power shine _ _

_ _ Make the clock reverse. Bring back what once was mine. _ _

_ _ What once was mine. _ _

  


The baby's hair began to glow and the skin on Katya's hand began to smooth out and lose its bony appearance. She sighed with relief as the rejuvenation spread to the rest of her hand. She would take a lock of the child's hair and she would remain young forever. She took out a pair of scissors and snipped the lock.

The detached hair stopped glowing and turned auburn as did the lock of hair it was cut from and Katya's hand went back to its aged state. Katya gasped in shock and then realised what she had to do.

* * *

Ludwig and Feliciano were awoken by their child's crying, followed by the sound of someone moving around in the nursery. Both scrambled from their bed and ran to the nursery in time to see Katya climbing over the balcony with their infant daughter in her arms, disappearing into the night. Feliciano fell to his knees and cried.

His family was cursed.

* * *

Katya needed somewhere to keep the child so she would not be found and she knew just the place. There was a deserted tower that Katya had accidentally stumbled across on her original journey to find the flower and it was where she had been living. It was in a hidden glade that could not easily be found which was what Katya needed as she knew the princess's disappearance would bring out the resources of three kingdoms to find her.

Katya named the little girl Natasha and would keep her in the tower. She would never lose her precious little flower again.

* * *

_ Three _ _ _ years later... _ _

_ _ New York, The New World (Soon to be known as America)…. _ _

A faint light began to glow in the deserted street and brightened. There was a flash of light and an eight year old boy with blonde hair and a cowlick fell unconscious in the street. He lay there for a minute before a man, going home from the tavern, stumbled into the street and stopped at the sight of the child lying on the ground. Not a man to care much about his fellow man, he went to walk away but he was not heartless enough to leave a child like that so he staggered to the boy, knelt beside him and shook him to see if he would get a response and the boy was not dead.

The boy groaned and moved slightly. The man shook him harder.

"Hey, boy," he slurred. "You all right?" The boy woke up and turned to see a man with dark reddish hair looking down at him. He looked round, confused.

"What's yer name, kid?" the man asked.

"Alfred!"

"Alfred what?" The boy's brow furrowed as he thought about the question.

"I don't remember," came the distressed answer.

"Where're yer family?"

"I don't know!" Alfred's eyes filled with tears. Oh no! The man had no patience with children at the best of times, that's why he put his own twin sons in the orphanage. He especially hated them when they cried. Actually the orphanage was not a bad idea.

"Don't cry, kid!" he ordered. "I'll take yer somewhere they can take care of yer." He took Alfred's hand and led him to the orphanage where they took the man's name, one Frederick Jones. They took the boy in and gave him the name of Alfred F. Jones.

And Alfred F. Jones would eventually make his way to Italy.

* * *

_ _ Another three years later... _ _

  


History was repeating itself for the Italian Royal Family.

When the Princess was taken, the soldiers of the future Triple Monarchy were dispatched to find her, the most dedicated coming from her Uncle Lovino and Antonio's kingdom, the abduction bringing back bad memories for Lovino who hated the thought of his little niece perhaps suffering the way he did but there was no sign.

Every night, on her birthday, Ludwig and Feliciano would release a Chinese lantern into the sky in memory of their lost daughter. It became a tradition for the people to also release lanterns for the missing princess and a cloud of lights would rise from the town. Ludwig and Feliciano were touched by the support of the people and it helped to ease the ache in their hearts although it would never take it away completely.

And maybe, one day, it would call their little girl back to them.

* * *

Little seven year old Natasha climbed out of bed and sneaked past her mother's bedroom in the tower in which they lived.

They had lived in the tower for as long as the little girl could remember. Her mother would not take her outside, telling her that outside was full of danger and evil people who would want to take her special gift away while brushing Natasha's hair as she sang her their special lullaby.

But as Natasha grew, she noticed that, on her birthday, floating lights would appear in the sky. It was her birthday today. She opened the shutters and, sure enough, lights drifted up and across the sky in the distance and the little girl smiled. Somehow she knew the lights were for her and one day she would see them for real.

* * *

_ _ Two years later... _ _

  


In the seaport, three boys deserted the ship they had signed on as cabin boy and crew. Two were twins with dark red hair and brown, almost reddish eyes. One was missing a tooth and another had a nose that had been broken at least once and that was the only way to tell them apart. Allen and Alex F. Jones were fifteen and were already harden by their experiences in the world, unlike their thirteen year old companion who still had dreams and aspirations that he would never tell his colleagues about.

He had come to Italy for a reason. He had no conscious memory of anything before the age of eight but he had dreams in which he saw three people. All blondes, one had green eyes and big eyebrows, one had blue eyes and a stubbly beard and there was a small boy with violet eyes who looked like him. He did not know who these people were but in his dreams he was wanted and loved so he believed that this was his family and they had not abandoned him.

What brought him to Italy was that, as well as English, German and French, he could speak Italian and he had no memory of ever learning these languages and in his dreams, Italian was sometimes spoken so now he was here looking for his lost family.

And nothing was going to stop Steven Rogers!


	2. Things Are About To Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'Steve Rogers' is being a naughty boy while Natasha is about to have her life crashed….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies to fans out there for what 'Steve' is about to do but I wanted to move away from the Flynn Ryder name and for Alfred to take the name of his favourite hero which is, naturally, Captain America but don't worry....he's still a hero.....eventually...  
And Kiku is a Japanese flying dwarf squirrel …. Something different from a Chameleon...

** _ **Chapter 2 : Things Are About To Change** _ **

  
  


The little grey/brown squirrel ran across the floor and up to the window ledge, between the closed curtains and hid behind a little potted tree, just small enough to hide in the abundant leaves on the tree. A split-second later, the curtains were pulled open and a girl with long, almost silvery-blonde hair and blue-purple eyes shouted, "HA!"

Natasha had expected to find the little creature, hiding behind the curtain but he was nowhere to be seen.

"Hmm," she pondered. "Now where did he go?" And she turned back into the room.

The little squirrel breathed a sigh of relief as he believed he had escaped her this time.

A belief that was soon dispelled when something suddenly wrapped around his tail and pulled him out of the little shrub. Held in the air by a long lock of silvery-blonde hair, he hung showing his little white belly to the girl.

"Found you, Kiku!" Kiku stared moodily at Natasha's upside-down face. Kiku had crawled into the tower two years earlier and, after realising he was not one of the horrible monsters that her mother told her resided outside the tower, he had become her only friend. She did not know why but she named him Kiku. It just seemed to fit.

Her hair, that she had discovered she could make move at will when she turned about thirteen, lowered her little squirrel friend back on to the window sill.

"Best out of twenty-one?" she asked. Kiku shook his head. He was never going to win anyway. Natasha huffed in frustration. She hated being bored and there was only so much you could do in a tower.

"Well," she said. "What do you want to do?" Kiku gestured with his little head to the outside of the window and seemed to plead with his cute huge eyes but it was always the same. Kiku would always want Natasha to go outside but her mother's warnings of monsters and evil men was deeply ingrained so she always refused.

"No!" she replied, adamantly. "I like it in here. And so do you!" It was hard to tell if he rolled his eyes but he gave his tail an irritated flick. Natasha sat on the sill and had to admit it would be an adventure to go out into the lush green valley and see what was out there. Was the world really as bad as her mother painted?

The clock chimed. Was it seven o'clock already? Natasha began her chores and swept every speck of dust and dirt from the floor, did the polishing and waxing, collected the laundry, mopped then gave the floor another sweep after it had dried. 'That should have kill some time' she thought as she looked at the clock.

Not even an hour had passed. Oh, that clock had to be wrong!

She settled down to read a book about a prince cursed as a beast and only his soul mate could break the curse. When that was done, she began painting on a wall already adorned with countless murals. When she finished, she took out her guitar and played for a while before breakfast. She did a variation of this every morning.

After breakfast, Natasha would do some puzzles, play darts and bake some biscuits. She would make things from paper mâche, practise her ballet and then play chess with Kiku who was quite a good player for a squirrel.

She would make some plates and dishes on her potter's wheel, freak Kiku out with ventriloquism and make new candles from leftover stubs, sketch a few pictures and work on a new dress.

She would read the books that she had read many times before, find more space on the walls to paint another picture and then would come the task that took the most time. Brushing her hair. Just over twenty meters of it.

Natasha could not cut her hair. One thing her mother had stressed to her was, if she cut her hair, her special gift would be lost so it was left to grow and it wound around the rooms in the tower and took about two to three hours to brush it through. Natasha felt like she was existing, not living and just waiting for her life to truly begin, Was this what her life was going to be forever? Doing the same thing every day?

Except for tomorrow. Tomorrow was her birthday and tomorrow night, the floating lights would appear. The floating lights that seem to call to her to come see them, up close and not at a distance.

And that was what she was going to ask her mother for her birthday!

* * *

The view from the top of the Italian Royal Palace was breathtaking with miles and miles of rolling green hills and valleys and warm sunshine shone down on the countryside. A picture of peaceful tranquillity. All this was viewed by a young man with sun-kissed hair with a lock that defied gravity and sky-blue eyes that shone behind rimless glasses. He wore a white shirt, brown trousers and boots with a long, green waistcoat and a red neck cloth.

"Hey, Rogers," a voice shouted. "Are we doing this or are ya just gonna stare at the view?"

He had changed his name to Steven Rogers, a name he found in a book, because he was tired of being mistaken for Allen and Alex's younger brother. He pretended to share the twin brothers' criminal ambitions to become wealthy for their own sakes but Steve had other reasons to accumulate money.

The twins had a cruel streak that Steve thought was unnecessary and he had nothing in common with the twins. They were simply a means to an end and, when this was over, he and the brothers would be parting company.

It had never been Steve's plan to be a thief, he wanted to be a hero, like his namesake and to just find his family but real life got in the way. Searching for family took money, as did just plain living, and for a young man with no past, his options were limited. Steve turned to the twins and went into a well-rehearsed act of shallow wealth-lust.

"Hey, guys!" he replied. "I'm thinking I should get a castle like this."

"We pull this off," Allen commented. "You can buy a hundred castles. Now get over here and let's get this done." Steve made his way to the twins and began to tie a rope around his waist and the Jones brothers began to lower him down from the roof into the room below.

* * *

The Crown of the Missing Princess had become Italy's most prized possession. Being made of gold and set with rare, petal-shaped pink and green diamonds, made it valuable on its own but the story behind it increased its value far beyond the cost of the jewels. But the most important value to two of the Kings of the Triple Monarchy of Italy, Germania and Spain was sentimental. The crown created to sit on the head of the daughter of King Ludwig and King Feliciano was guarded by soldiers on all four sides, day and night, in the most secure room in the castle.

Not secure enough!

It does not seem to matter how diligent people are, they never seem to look up which was why not one of the soldiers, who were looking for thieves coming from outside the room, spotted Steve descending from the ceiling. When he was low enough, he plucked the crown from the velvet cushion it was sitting on and put it in the satchel he had slung across his chest.

Then the soldier stood in front of him sneezed.

"Bless ya, dude!"

"Grazie!" the soldier replied, looking round at Steve and then turned back to his task for a moment before realisation sank in. He turned back but Steven Rogers was gone, along with the prized crown. He finally looked up to see the thief being pulled up on a rope, the other soldiers looking up too.

"Dare  l'allarme !  _ ( _ _ _ Sound the alarm _ _ _ ! _ )"

Soldiers poured out of every barracks as the warning bells rang and swamped the streets but Rogers and the Jones twins were running across the roof tops, above their heads, the crown banging against Steve's hip in the satchel as he ran. As they made their escape, Steve called to the other two, "Everything we've done already and it's only eight o'clock. This is going to be a very big day!"

* * *

"Today's a very big day, Kiku," Natasha confided in her little friend. "Today I'm going to ask her. Do you think I should?" Kiku nodded his head, although he doubted that Natasha's 'mother' would allow it.

Because Kiku knew the truth!

He knew who Natasha really was, where she really belonged but he could not tell her because she could not understand him and because things had to go in a certain way. But someone was coming, someone to change Natasha's life and it was not her so-called mother.

Speak of the devil!

"Natasha! Let down your hair!" Katya's voice called from outside at the bottom of the tower. Natasha ran to the window, willed her hair to hang over a hook in the eaves and let the remainder of her hair drop and it fell to the bottom of the tower. Katya looped some of the hair to create a foothold and stepped into it and Natasha began to pull her up. There was a door to the tower but, when Natasha's hair became long enough and she was strong enough, Katya had walled up the door and had Natasha pull her into the tower instead, just in case Natasha got it into her head to go exploring.

When she reached the window, Katya stepped over the sill and began to shower Natasha in false affection with hidden belittling comments. The whole display made Kiku feel a little ill.

"I don't know how you manage to pull me up every time," Katya twittered, sweetly. "It must be exhausting." It was, even with the ability to move her hair with the power of thought but Natasha would never say so because her mother would make some comment that would make her feel guilty.

"It's nothing," she said, brushing it off.

"Then why does it take you so long?" Katya replied and Natasha's face dropped. "Oh! I'm just teasing, you shouldn't take it so seriously." Katya moved to the full length mirror that stood in the corner and examined her face. She was already showing signs of age and needed another magic fix up because the effects were lasting less and less. Natasha followed her to the mirror.

"Mother," she said. "You know that tomorrow is ….." But Katya cut her off.

"Natasha," she asked. "What do you see when you look in the mirror? I see a confident, beautiful, young woman." Natasha smiled at the compliment.

"Oh look! You're there too." Natasha sighed. Why could her mother not just compliment her without a joke at her expense?

"Mother," she tried again. "About tomorrow …." But Katya moved away.

"I'm feeling a little tired," Katya said. "Why don't you sing to me?" Natasha knew the routine so she rushed through it as fast as she could so she could get her mother's attention so she could ask her what she wanted to.

She dragged out the chair her mother usually sat in and placed her stool in front of it. She then dragged Katya over and almost pushed her into the chair. Natasha sat down on her stool and pushed her hair and the hair brush into her mother's hand and sang the spell.

"Flowergleamandglow,letyourpowershine,Maketheclockreverse,Bringbackwhatoncewasmine," Natasha never took a breath and Katya was caught off guard, barely having time to brush Natasha's hair. It still worked but the magic blasted through Katya so fast it left her slightly woozy.

"Natasha, what's wrong with you?"

"Well, I've been trying to tell you since you came in," Natasha replied. "Tomorrow's my birthday! Tah-da!" Katya nearly rolled her eyes. She did not want to deal with placating Natasha right now.

"Can't be," she said. "Your birthday was last year." Lame attempt!

"That's the thing about birthdays," Natasha pressed. "They tend to happen every year and I know what I want for mine this year." Natasha took a deep breath.

"I want you to take me to see the floating lights!"

Katya froze for a moment. Of course she knew what Natasha was referring to, she had seen the lights herself every year on Natasha's birthday and knew why they flew but there was no way she was taking Natasha out of the tower, let alone anywhere near the royal palace so she faked ignorance.

"What lights?" she asked. "Do you means stars?" Natasha unveiled one of the paintings she had done. It was a picture of herself, sat on a tree branch, watching a crowd of lights float into the sky.

"I've tracked the stars," Natasha replied, astronomy being one of her hobbies to combat boredom. "They're constant but these lights appear on my birthday. Only on my birthday, as if they're meant for me." Katya realised she should have lied about when Natasha was born, then she never would have made that connection. She gave a mocking little chuckle.

"Can you hear yourself?" she said and decided to bring Natasha back into line with a guilt trip. And a little fear.

"You're such a fragile little sprout," she commented, shaking her head. "You know why we stay in this tower!" Katya began stroking Natasha's hair.

"Yes, I know," Natasha replied. "But …."

"That's right!" Katya said, pulling a section of the hair lovingly toward her. "To keep you safe and sound, dear. I should have realised this day would come when you'd want to fly the nest and leave me behind." Katya laid it on thick.

"Mother, that's not …."

"But not yet!"

"But ..."

"Natasha, Mother Knows Best," Katya replied. "Listen to your mother, it's a scary world beyond the tower and something or other will go wrong, I promise."

"But mother, I only meant..."

"There's ruffians and thugs," Katya marked off each one on her fingers. "Poison ivy and quick sand in the woods, not to mention snakes, oh! And the Plague!"

"No!"

"Oh yes!" Katya insisted. "And large bugs, men with sharp, pointy teeth. Please can we stop, this is upsetting me." Natasha was a little guilt-ridden but still not swayed from what she wanted.

"But don't worry, dear," Katya smiled. "I'll protect you so I suggest you just forgo this idea that will just cause trouble and stay here with me."

"Mother, please if you just..."

"Just listen to me," Katya insisted. "You won't survive on your own out there. You're sloppily under-dressed and so clumsy and immature. Please! They'll eat you up alive." Katya saw Natasha's face fall with every word and continued to chip away at her self-confidence.

"You're gullible," Katya rhymed off. "Naive, somewhat grubby, ditsy and rather vague. And I think you're getting kind of chubby." Natasha looked a little horrified.

"Oh! Now Natasha," Katya hid her smirk as her words drove home. "I'm just saying this because I love you."

Maybe she was but it did not sound like that to Natasha. And anyway. Chubby! Natasha thought she had lost weight over the past few years. One thing was for certain. Natasha did not think she was going to get what she wanted for her birthday.

"I understand, dear," Katya said. "I'm here to help! I only ask one thing!" And she opened her arms to Natasha and Natasha's hope rose as she stepped into them to hug her mother. Katya's arms closed around her and hugged her so tightly Natasha began to feel trapped.

"Natasha!"

"Yes, Mother!" Katya finally let her go and took Natasha's face in both hands.

"NEVER ask to leave this tower again!" she said, sternly. Natasha looked down at her feet in disappointment.

"Yes, Mother," she murmured. Now was the time for some fake affection for Katya ran the risk of Natasha becoming distant from her. She had lost control of a situation once before and the consequences were ….. far reaching. She would not do that again.

"I love you very much," Katya lied. "You know that, don't you?"

"I love you more," Natasha replied and hugged Katya again.

"I love you most!" Katya replied. "And remember, Mother Knows Best! Don't forget that! You'll regret it if you do." That had a double meaning that flew over Natasha's head while Kiku shook his little furry head. Katya had won again!

* * *

Berlitz was on a mission. His master and his mate were distressed by the loss of the sparkly thing that he sometimes guarded that he knew that belonged to his master's pup, the little friend he had made that disappeared so long ago. He did not know where she went but his master's behaviour told him that she did not go with his master's permission.

He had the scent of the thieves and he would not stop until he found them.

* * *

Steve Rogers and the Jones Brothers ran through the forest with the palace guard on their trail and they could hear the barking of a dog. They wove in and out of trees as they tried to put distance between them and their pursuers but eventually had to stop for a breath.

Steve leant against a tree and noticed a wanted poster. He ripped it off the tree and looked at it with a stunned look.

"This is bad!" he announced and then showed the twins the poster of him with a bulbous nose. "They just can't get my nose right!"

"Focus, will ya, Rogers," Allen snapped. They were being chased by the Italian Palace Guard and he was worried about what he looked like on his wanted poster!

"What?" Steve asked. "I've seen your wanted posters, you look great." The sound of galloping horses and a dog's bark sounded.

"Not the time for this!" Alex announced and they began running again.

* * *

The thickening trees began to impede the soldiers on horseback but Berlitz was not so limited. He shot between the trees after the scent that had led him all the way from the palace and would lead him to the lawbreakers. He would not stop until he caught them.

* * *

The trio had run into a dead end. The ground rose up in front of them and they had no other escape route. Steve went to see how far away their pursuers were while the Jones Twins looked for a way up to the higher ground.

"If we get out of this," Allen said. "We leave Rogers behind. No need to split the loot with someone who ditched our name."

"Agreed," Alex replied, not realising that Steve had returned and heard every word.

'So that's the way it is,' he thought. 'Two can play at that game!' He looked at the small cliff and came up with a plan.

"Guys, I've an idea," he said. "Alex, you stand on Allen's shoulders, I'll climb up you and I'll pull you up and then we can pull Allen up." He moved toward the cliff but Allen stopped him.

"What's to stop you from leaving with the crown and leaving us to the guards?" he replied. "Give us the satchel first!" Steve put his hand over his heart.

"You don't trust me," he said in a wounded tone. "Guys! That hurts!" Alex just held out his hand and Steve put the satchel in it. Alex put it over his shoulder and Allen went to the cliff and Alex climbed onto Allen's shoulders and then Steve climbed up them both and pulled himself over the top. The sound of pursuit came from the forest. Alex held his hand up to Steve.

"Pull us up!"

"Sorry!" Steve replied and held up the satchel he managed to undo and slip from Alex's shoulder as he climbed up him. "Got my hands full!" And he ran out of sight.

* * *

The Jones twins were quickly spotted and apprehended but it was soon clear that neither had the crown but Berlitz knew that there was a thief missing. He had his scent and it led up the cliff. Berlitz jumped at the cliff face to make it clear to the soldiers that the last thief had gone that way.

Captain Luciano Vargas and Lieutenant Flavio Vargas were in the fourth year of their sentence for the kidnapping of Prince Lovino and/or attempting to kill King Ivan (although they thought he was just a beast at the time) and they were finding army life to their liking and their acceptance by their uncle, King Romulus, now retired, and the rest of the Italian Royal Family had changed their attitudes for the better. The theft of the crown had upset the entire family and the two royal nephews wanted to catch the thieves and get that crown back

Luciano watched Berlitz jumping at the cliff and looked up at the top. It would take time to find a way to the top and the thief could escape in the meantime but he had an idea.

He picked up Berlitz.

"Ready, boy?" he asked and then threw Berlitz up to the top of the cliff. Berlitz managed to catch the edge with his front paws but began to slide down. He scrambled for purchase on the cliff face with his back legs and pulled himself up with his front. After a few moments struggle, he finally got to the top, found the scent again and took off after the trail.

* * *

Steve ran as fast as he could, knowing that now he not only had the palace guard after him but the Jones Brothers as well. When he felt he was far enough away he slowed and stopped. He caught his breath and began to open the satchel when he heard the sound of something running toward him. Steve did not wait to see what it was but just started running again.

Berlitz burst through the woods and saw the remaining thief in the distance. He ran faster to catch the last remaining man who had caused his master so much upset. Steve took a glance behind him and spotted a huge German Shepherd dog chasing him and ran faster. If that dog caught him …. Well let's just say Steve was attached to his body parts.

But in his panic, he did not look where he was going and suddenly he found himself sliding down an incline toward a drop. He managed to stop his descent but found that the satchel had slipped from his shoulder and was still sliding until it hit and caught on a shrub growing from the leaning ground.

Berlitz appeared at the top of the incline and looked down at his prey. Then he saw the satchel. He could smell his master's scent coming from it and knew the sparkly thing was inside as his master would often pick it up. Berlitz eased himself over the edge and inched his way down toward the satchel. Steve began to move toward the satchel himself, trying to beat the dog to it but the loose soil and stones began to shift. And then it began to avalanche and both man and dog slid down over the edge, Flynn catching the strap of the satchel as he went over.

Steve was in free fall for a moment and then he began hitting branches. They hurt but they broke his fall. When he made it to the ground he was a little battered and bruised but intact but the same trees also saved Berlitz as well as a dose of magic when he was six years old. Little Prince Marcello had somehow managed to get hold of Vladimir Drakulya's wand. No one thought it would be a problem, after all, only people with magic could use it.

Prince Marcello had magic. A spell had flown out of Vladimir's wand and hit Berlitz. Berlitz no longer aged, could understand human speech and was now practically indestructible. So the fall into the trees did not hurt him and Prince Marcello was going to be trained in magic.

Steve ran again, his scrapes and bruises protesting, until he had to stop by a curtain of ivy decorating a large rock-face and leant against it, expecting rock to be behind it. Instead he fell straight through, damaging some of the ivy as he fell. Behind was a tunnel because he could see light at the other end. Then he heard the dog on the other side.

Berlitz was following the scent but he lost it at the ivy because the smell released from the damaged ivy masked all others scents and he moved away to try and pick it up again. Steve breathed a sigh of relief as the dog left. Then he moved to the other end of the tunnel and out into the light on the other side.

He walked out into a green valley with a stream running through it and, in the distance, was a tall tower. A place to hide and rest up for a while was just what he needed so he made his way to it.

He looked for a door when he reached it but found it filled in. He looked for another way in but all he could see was a window at the top. Looked like he was in for a climb. He found foot and hand holds in the chipped brick work and slowly ascended the tower. The window came closer and closer then finally he reached it and heaved himself over the window sill, knocking the potted shrub off as he did so. After he caught his breath, he opened the satchel and gazed at the sparkling crown within.

"Alone at last!"

_ CLANG! _

At the same time Steve heard the noise, a large pain hit the back of his head and the ground came up to meet him but darkness swallowed him up before he hit it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next : With the help of the satchel, Natasha forces 'Steve' into a deal...


	3. Take Me To The Floating Lights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha leaves 'Steve' with no choice....

** _ **Chapter 3 : Take Me To The Floating Lights** _ **

  


As Steve dropped to the floor, Natasha stood stock still for a moment, still holding up the frying pan she had just hit him with. When she heard sounds coming from the window, she wondered if her mother had somehow made it to the window by herself but when she saw the strange boy standing in the room, she grabbed the nearest thing to hand (the frying pan) and swung it at his head and then she realised she had just whacked a possibly dangerous stranger.

"EEEKKK!" she screamed and bolted behind the tailor's dummy she used to make her clothes before the strange man could wake up and get her. When she plucked up the courage to peek over the dummy's shoulder, she saw that he had not moved so, holding the frying pan out in front of her, she inched her way back to the young man, knocked out on her floor.

She bent over him and prodded him with the frying pan but there was no response. His face was covered by his blonde bangs so she used the frying pan to flip his hair away. Slightly tanned skin and high cheekbones became visible along with firm lips on a slightly boyish face. He looked about nineteen or twenty and, if Natasha was honest, quite cute.

But he must be after her hair. How he found out where she was, she had no idea but there was nothing else here for him but her magic hair.

Kiku sat on Natasha's shoulder as she bent over the unconscious man and turned the pan round and used the handle to push his upper lip up so she could see his teeth. Instead of pointy teeth, she saw perfectly normal ones and she gave a sigh of relief.

The man groaned and she whacked him again in panic. He would be out for a while.

* * *

After a few epic failed attempts, she managed to stuff the unconscious body into her wardrobe and stuck a chair against the door handles to keep the doors shut (he had fallen out on top of her at one point). When she finally achieved her aim, she collapsed in the chair to catch her breath and reality sank in.

"There's a man in my closet," she told herself as if not believing the statement. Then she realised that her inner sanctum had been invaded and she had beaten the intruder and grinned.

"There's a man in my closet," she laughed, standing up and doing a little victory dance. She was tougher than her mother gave her credit for and she could use this to prove that she could handle the outside world. Then maybe her mother would take her to see the lights.

"Too fragile to go outside, mother," she said to herself. "Well, not any more!" Then she twirled the frying pan and it hit her in the side of the head.

"Owwww!" She rubbed the side of her head and her eye caught the satchel and she put the frying pan on a table and picked up the satchel, opened it and looked at the jewelled crown nestling within. She took it out and looked at it. It was pretty but what did you do with it? She had never seen one before and it was too big to be a bracelet. She looked in the mirror and slowly brought it up to her head. It seemed right so she put it on top of her hair where it sat like it had been created just to sit there.

"Natasha, let down your hair!"

"Mother's here!" she gasped. She pulled the crown from her head, grabbed the satchel, threw them into a nearby pot to hide them and ran to the window. Katya looked up from the foot of the tower.

"Hurry up, Natasha," she called. "I have a surprise for you." And Natasha threw her hair down to Katya.

"I have one for you too," she replied as she began to pull Katya up. She heard her mother chuckle.

"Mine's bigger!" she bragged. Natasha huffed as she pulled at her hair.

"I sincerely doubt it," she muttered as she pulled Katya to the window. Katya stepped over the sill with a basket and a fake smile.

"I brought back parsnips," she said. "I'm going to make hazelnut soup, your favourite." Natasha actually hated hazelnut soup (and how you made it with parsnips was a mystery) but any attempt to tell Katya this seem to result in selective deafness on her part.

"Mother, about earlier …"

"Oh! You know I hate to leave you after a fight," Katya interrupted. Actually, she left to let Natasha stew in fear of what she had said. "Especially when I'm not the one in the wrong!"

There it was, the guilt trip but Natasha was not going to let it deter her this time.

"I've been thinking a lot about what you said earlier," she began but Katya did not want to rehash this.

"You're not still going on about the stars, are you?" she huffed.

"The floating lights," Natasha corrected. "And yes, it does concern that ….."

"Because I thought we'd settle that," Katya wanted to nip this in the bud.

"I just saying, Mother," Natasha pressed on. "You think I'm not strong enough to handle myself on the outside..."

"I don't think," Katya replied. "I know you're not!"

"But if you just..."

"We're not talking about this any more!" But Natasha was reaching for the chair to open the wardrobe and show her mother what she had achieved.

"Trust me, I know …..!"

"No more about those accursed lights, Natasha," Katya snapped. "You're not leaving this tower, EVER!"

Natasha's hand froze on the chair and then pulled away, leaving the chair where it was. Her mother's tone was so adamant, there was no use showing her. She would not change her mind.

Katya saw the look on Natasha's face, like someone who had lost her best friend and, as she was the only one Natasha knew, it was her. She had to take control again. So, with dramatic emphasis, she almost threw herself into her chair and gave a heavy sigh.

"Wonderful," she said in a suffering tone. "I'm the bad guy!"

The emotional blackmail worked for a moment but then Natasha looked up at the painting of herself watching the lights then at the wardrobe which contained the man she had knocked out. Surely he knew the way to the lights but she had to make sure he would not steal her hair.

And she had to get her mother away long enough for her to leave, see the lights and get back.

"I just wanted to say," she said, tentatively. "That I know what I want for my birthday."

"What?" Katya asked, tersely.

"Paint," Natasha replied. "Made from the white sea shells you got for me that one time."

"That's a three day journey," Katya replied. She did not want to travel so far. The last time she got them she had been passing and thought they would keep Natasha quiet. Natasha knew how far away they were which was why she said it.

"I though that would be better than the …. stars," she decided not to say 'floating lights' and set her mother off again. Katya decided to agree rather than risk Natasha going back to her obsession with the 'floating lights'

"Will you be all right on your own for that long?" Katya asked. Natasha kept the look of triumph from her face.

"I know I'll be safe as long as I remain in the tower," she replied, with as much innocence as she could muster.

"Make me up a basket of food for the journey," Katya ordered. "And sing to me before I go." If she was going away for that length of time, she would need another dose of youth magic. Natasha did everything she was told to and after singing her special song, gave Katya the basket and helped her on with her cloak.

"You know I love you," Katya lied again.

"I love you more!"

"I love you most!"

Natasha lowered her mother to the ground and watched her walk to the tunnel entrance where she turned and waved. Natasha waved back and Katya disappeared into the tunnel.

Natasha ran to the wardrobe and opened it where the still unconscious young man fell out and face-planted into the floor.

* * *

Kiku sat on the unconscious man's shoulder while, after winding her hair around the man to secure him in a chair, Natasha climbed into the rafters and then nodded to Kiku. Kiku took some of the man's hair in his little paws and tugged. The man's head wobbled but that was it so Kiku turned round and smacked his cheek twice with his tail.

No response!

Kiku had one more thing to try and hope the man was the type to clean his ears.

He took hold of the man's earlobe, reached up, stuck his little, damp nose into the young man's ear and snorted wetly into the ear canal.

"ARRRRGH!" That woke him up!

Steve came to with a start and tried to rub his ear against his shoulder after Kiku retracted his nose from it but had to stop because his head HURT!. As his eyes focus, he saw something curling around the floor that looked like ……

"Is that …. hair?" he muttered. He tried to move and found himself tied to the chair he was sat in. With the same hair that trailed over the floor and he followed it until it disappeared up into the shadows of the rafters.

"You can't get loose," a female voice with an east European accent called from the shadowy ceiling. "So struggling is pointless!" Steve peered into the shadows and could just make out the outline of a human figure sat on the main rafter but he could see little else.

"I know what you want," the voice continued. "And I'm not scared of you!" What he wanted? Not scared of him? What was this chick talking about?

"Huh?" he asked.

The figure jumped down from the rafters and slowly crept into the light. It was a young girl, about sixteen years old with wide blue-purple eyes and hair the same colour of that which covered the floor and he noticed the hair moved when she did. Was all that hair from her? There had to be miles of it. She was also carrying a frying pan, defensively.

"Who are you?" she demanded. "And how did you find me?" Steve just stared at her in surprise. She was very pretty, or would be if she did not look like she was going to hit him. When he did not answer, she grew impatient.

"WHO ARE YOU AND HOW DID YOU FIND ME?" she repeated in a steely tone and a dark aura over her eyes, raising the frying pan threateningly. He came out of his trance and put on a cocky grin and seductive look.

"Hi there," he replied, smoothly. "How ya doing? The name's Steve Rogers!" The look that the girl gave him said 'So what!'.

"Who else knows I'm here, STEVE ROGERS?" she said, forcefully, pointing the pan at his face. Steve realised that the smooth approach was not going to work with this girl.

"Okay, okay," he replied, hastily. "It's like this, Blondie ….."

"Natasha!"

"Bless you!" he replied. "I was in a situation, stuck in the forest and I saw your tower and …..." It was then he realised something was missing.

"Oh! Oh no!" he looked around the room in desperation. "Where's the satchel?" He needed that crown! The money the crown would bring could set up his search for his family indefinitely.

'Oh, so the satchel is important to him!' Natasha thought. Mind you! That shiny head jewellery was very pretty. But he could be after her hair but perhaps she could use the satchel to her advantage.

"I've hidden it," she said, smugly. "Where you'll never find it!" Steve looked around the room again and spotted one place it could be.

"It's in that pot, isn't it," he replied, looking over at it.

_ _ Clang! _ _

* * *

When he came to, it was the same as before. Still tied up with silvery-blonde hair, still no satchel.

Still had a squirrel's wet nose in his ear!

"ARRRGH!" he screamed again as the nose retracted. "WILL YOU STOP DOING THAT!"

"Now it's somewhere you'll never find it," Great! Blondie was still here!

"NOW!" she said with determination. "What do you want with my hair? To cut it? SELL IT!"

What was the deal with her hair? Sure there was a lot of it and it would make a lot of wigs but he was not a wig maker so what would he want with it?

"Look!" he replied, struggling in the restraining golden locks. "The only thing I want to do with your hair is get out of it. LITERALLY!" That seemed to stump the girl, Natasha, did she call herself?

"You..." she hesitated. "DON'T want my hair?"

"Why on earth would I want your hair?" Steve huffed impatiently. "Look! I was being chased, saw this tower, climbed it, bada bing bada boom, the end!"

"Are you telling the truth?" she asked, warily.

"Yes," he replied. Natasha eyed him and hummed. Kiku appeared from her hair, ran down Natasha's arm and stood at the edge of the frying pan that was inches from Steve's nose, looking him up and down. Yes! It was him!

Kiku ran back up Natasha's arm and she retreated with him to the far side of the room. Steve watched them as Natasha turned her back to him and then he began to struggle to try and loosen the hair to escape.

"I'll need a guide," she whispered to Kiku. "And I think he's telling the truth." Kiku nodded in agreement. Natasha was so close to finally leaving the tower.

"No pointy teeth," Natasha had nightmares about that and everything else her mother had ever told her. "And I might never get this chance again. Do you think I should?" Kiku nodded again. Natasha turned back to Steve who stopped struggling.

"I'm going to make a deal with you, Steve Rogers," Natasha announced.

"A deal?"

"Look this way," she walked to the picture of herself and the lights and gave the hair a yank to pull the chair round. It turned but it also tipped up and Steve landed on his face.

"OWWWWW!"

"Do you know what these are?" she asked, pointing to the painted floating lights. Steve looked up as best he could with his face squashed into the floor.

"You mean the lanterns they release for the princess each year?" They were the only things they could be.

"I knew they weren't stars," Natasha breathed. Then she spoke up again. "These lanterns will appear tomorrow night. I want you to take me to see them, then bring me home safely. Then and only then will I return your satchel. That's the deal!"

What! Go back to the palace when everyone there was out for his blood. Uh huh!

Steve flipped the chair round so it was now on its back.

"No way!" he said, adamantly. "Me and the palace! Not exactly on speaking terms. I'm going nowhere near it!" Natasha looked at Kiku who gave her encouragement to do what she had to. She yanked on her hair and the chair was pulled upright. She pulled slowly and Steve and the chair began to move toward her.

"It's no accident you're here," she replied. "Something led you here. Fate, destiny ….."

"A dog!"

"... so I've decided to trust you..."

"Bad decision!" Steve almost sang.

"But I'll tell you this," she replied, tired of his interruptions. She gave the hair a hard yank and Steve began to fall forward but his descent was arrested by Natasha and they were almost nose to nose.

"You can tear this tower down, brick by brick," she promised, a scary dark aura falling over her eyes again that sent a chill into Steve's soul. "But you will never find your precious satchel!"

"Let's see if I've got this right," he mused. "I take you to see the lanterns, bring you back and you give me back the satchel?"

"I promise!" Steve looked into her eyes for any hint of a lie.

"And I never, EVER, break a promise!" she assured. "EVER! I'll even pinky swear!"

Something about that drifted at the edge of Steve's memory and he believed she would keep her promise but there was still the slight problem of him being Most Wanted among the Italian population. No! He had to get out of this. With the crown! So he pulled out the big guns.

"I didn't want to do this," he said. "But you've left me no choice." He looked up at her with puppy dog eyes and a pouty lip. It melted the heart of many a female orphanage warder and some of the orphaned girls. Natasha just stared at him as if to say 'what are you doing?' Steve persevered for a little while until he realised it was not working.

"Okay, this is new," he mused. "I'm clearly having an off-day. All right! I'll take you to see the damn lanterns." Natasha squealed with joy. Unfortunately, she also let go of the tilting chair and Steve landed on his face again.

"Ooops!" was all she could say. There came a pained groan.

"I'm regretting this already!"

* * *

Natasha did not tell Steve she could get out of the tower much easier than he got in so he began climbing down after he was released from her hair. She had also decided not to tell him what her hair was capable of, just in case it changed his mind about wanting to take it from her. She stood on the sill and threw her hair over the hook. She looked down at the world below. It was so close, she was halfway there. It was so big and wide open, did she dare to take this step? Did she dare not when she was here at last and had this chance? She looked back into the tower and the safety it represented and stepped back toward the room. Should she stay? No! She was going!

Kiku gave her an encouraging smile and it stiffened her resolve.

'Here I go,' she thought, took the rest of her hair and threw it down.

Steve was almost at the bottom when a blonde mass fell past him, quickly followed by Natasha, sliding down her own hair, followed by the little rodent that usually sat on her shoulder, gliding down through the air in a spiral on the extra skin between his fore and back legs. Why did she not tell him she could do that? She could have lowered him down instead of making him climb. He pouted.

Natasha stopped just above the ground. This was it! She could just climb back up and her mother would never know. If she never even set foot on the ground, she never technically left the tower but she had come this far. Something told her if she backed away now she would regret it. She slowly lowered one foot.

And felt the grass for the first time beneath her feet.

She put her other foot on the ground and knelt down. She could smell the grass and the dirt and they smelt just as she imagined as Kiku landed back on her shoulder. She could feel the summer breeze as it blew dandelion seeds into the air. It called her to follow where it blew and she chased the seed and her feet felt something wet and she looked down to see she had run into the nearby stream. She loved the feel of the cool, flowing water on her feet and, for the first time in her life, she felt completely free. She began to run, race, dance, chase, leapt, bound, almost flying toward the tunnel to the outside. Pounding, splashing through the stream again. She burst through the ivy, hiding the tunnel and she spun around, finally feeling the world around her.

Her life was finally beginning!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next : A peak into Natalya's past explains her behaviour and a cute little newcomer discovers Alfred....


	4. I Got A Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha is finally out of her tower but 'Steve' just wants to scare her back into it....

** _ **Chapter 4 : I've Got A Dream** _ **

  
  


Arthur had, once again, arrived too late to catch up with his targets. He had been trailing Alfred and the other two, a Allen and Alex F. Jones after picking up a lead at one of the Italian ports but the boys, it seemed, had kept moving and a year after the three of them had arrived, Alfred seem to disappear and the twins picked up another companion, a young man called Steve Rogers. Arthur left their trail and tried to pick up Alfred's again with no success. It was like he had dropped off the face of the Earth so he began looking for the Jones Brothers again. They were his only lead to Alfred but there was one worrying fact.

The Jones Brothers were criminals.

There were signs that Alfred had done one or two shady things too. Nowhere near as bad as the other two but still, the idea that his son was a law-breaker.....Arthur put it down to the bad influence of the other two because their new companion, Rogers, had developed a reputation as a cocky thief. It had to be their fault!

The last place he had followed them to, had given him a hint as to where they had gone to next and he found himself heading back toward the Italian Royal Palace. The good news was he could be with his husband for a while. His other son, Matthew, was with his own husband, the Ice King, Ivan who was re-establishing himself with his kingdom after being missing for thirty years while cursed to live as a beast by his insane sister, Natalya. The curse was broken when Matthew fell in love with him and Ivan and the Russian kingdom were getting used to each other again.

Italy, Spain and Germania were now a triple monarchy under the crowned princes, now kings of the kingdoms after the former kings of Italy and Germania and the Queen of Spain retired and Prince Antonio and his husband, Prince Lovino and Prince Ludwig and his husband, Prince Feliciano now ruled the Triple Monarchy.

Arthur was good friends with the now King Ludwig and King Feliciano, having raised Feli for sixteen years and helped Ludwig break the curse Natalya had cast on Feli. Perhaps they could help him locate the Jones Brothers.

He had no idea what he was about to walk into.

* * *

Steve's head hurt from watching the emotional roller-coaster his companion/blackmailer was riding. She kept swinging from euphoria to deep guilt and back again. It was exhausting!

_ Joy: _ _ _ "I did it, I did it, I can't believe I did it!" _ _

_ Guilt: _ _ _ "Mother will be so angry!" _ _

_ Convincing herself:  _ _ _ "But if she doesn't know about it, it's all good, right?" _ _

_ Guilt:  _ _ _ "Oh! It would kill her if she knew!" _ _

_ Joy:  _ _ _ "THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!" _ _

_ Guilt:  _ _ _ "How can I be so horrible to my own mother! I'm going back!" _ _

_ Joy:  _ _ _ "I'M NEVER GOING BACK!" _ _

_ Guilt:  _ _ _ "I am a AWFUL, AWFUL, AWFUL PERSON!" _ _

_ Joy:  _ _ _ "BEST DAY EVER!" _ _ _ ( _ Swinging round a tree by her hair!)

In one way, Steve was glad when Natasha's mood-swing episode stopped. Unfortunately, when it did, Natasha sat down and began sobbing, stuck between achieving her dream and doing what her mother wanted her to do. Steve realised that this was probably the first time Natasha had ever disobeyed her mother and wondered if, with a little push, he could get the crown back and Natasha off his back. After all, he was King of the Guilt Trips!

"Ya know," he commented. "You seem to be a little conflicted here." Natasha looked up through tearful eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"Just the impression I get from what I've picked up," he clarified. "Over-protective mother, forbidden adventure, it's serious and stuff but I can help with that. It's all part of growing up, a little rebellion and adventure, everybody does it." Kiku knew what Steve was trying to do and stuck his tongue out at Steve from Natasha's shoulder.

"They do?" Natasha asked. Perhaps her mother might not be so mad if everyone did this.

"Of course, it is," Steve replied. "Stop over-thinking it. Does your mother deserve this? Probably not! Would her heart be broken and her spirit crushed by disappointment? Of course it would but whatcha gonna do? I mean, ya need this, right?" Natasha flinched at Steve's words.

"Break her heart?"

"Shatter it!"

"Crush her spirit?"

"Into dust!"

"It's true!" Natasha concurred, guiltily. "She would be so hurt!" Steve could feel victory within touching difference, knelt down and pulled Natasha to her feet and went in for the kill.

"Oh no!" Steve replied with a dramatic sigh. "Okay, it'll cost me to do this but I'm gonna forget the deal!" Natasha stared at him. Huh!

"That's right!" he said, picking up the frying pan that Natasha, in her excitement, had brought with her (she wisely did not trust Steve completely just yet). He slipped the pan under Natasha's arm and put his arm around her shoulders. "I don't want thanks! We'll just get ya home, I'll get back my satchel, your mother never knows and you get to keep your relationship with her and we part as friends and allies..." He steered her back toward the ivy wall but, when Natasha realised what he was doing, she punched him in the arm and pushed him away.

"NO!" she replied as Steve rubbed his arm. Girl packed a punch. "I AM seeing those lanterns and you ARE going to take me!" His failure to convince Natasha to give the satchel back finally made Steve blow.

"OH, COME ON!" he raged. "Who cares about the stupid lanterns! Just give me my satchel back?" That dark, scary aura fell back over Natasha's eyes as she aimed the frying pan at Steve's head.

"I WILL USE THIS!"

Steve thought he must be really slipping. First his puppy-dog pout and now his guilt trip abilities have failed. It was a very bad day for him.

Suddenly the bush beside them began moving. Natasha shrieked, hid behind Steve's back and pointed the frying pan at the bush over his shoulder. It rustled even more and then a mint-green rabbit with wings burst out of it and flew away.

"Keep the frying pan ready," Steve mocked. "It might be back. It knows you're scared now." Natasha looked a little sheepish as he turned toward her.

"Sorry," she muttered, embarrassed. "I'm just a little jumpy." Steve thought of another way to perhaps scare his frying pan welding nemesis into doing what he wanted and get her out of his life.

"Better stay away from the rough types then," he ventured.

"That would be a good idea," Natasha agreed.

Steve smiled. Yes, this would work! After this, she would be begging him to take her back to the tower.

"Are you hungry?" he asked. "There's a place that serves great meals not too far from here."

"Really," she replied. "Where?" He grabbed her hand and began pulling her along."

"You'll know it when you smell it!" And not in a good way, he finished in his head.

As he led her down the woodland path, Flying Mint Bunny watched them from the trees. Yes, that was him, Flying Mint Bunny was sure of it!

He flew off to find Arthur.

* * *

Katya was not sure about this trip. Natasha had never argued to the extent that she had of late and Katya questioned the wisdom of leaving her to her own devices. She could not let Natasha think she could manage without her. The argument brought back bad memories and, for a moment, Natasha had reminded Katya of Natalya when she refused to restore Katya's age for a second time.

She thought back to that time. It had seemed hypocritical to Katya that Natalya refused to make her make her young again when Natalya herself retained her own youth without even having to cast a spell.

  
_ " _ _ _ Please, Natalya," she begged. "You've done it before. Please, I'll die if you don't!" _ _

_ " _ _ _ Katya, you must understand," Natalya replied. "I did that because your grandson needed you then. He's grown now and out in the world. The Youth Spell can't be used again and again, humans become addicted and the more it's used, the less the effects last and it would eventually be needed almost constantly. I can't do that to you!" _ _

_ " _ _ _ Please!" _ _

_ " _ _ _ I'm sorry, Katya," Natalya replied, adamantly. "But it's for your own good. I refuse!" _ _

_Katya, of course, would not accept that and hit on a plan to force Natalya to do what she wanted. This was where she made her big mistake._

* * *

_As the Magic Princess Royal of Belarus, it fell to Natalya to enforce the Laws of Magic and part of this duty was to confiscate forbidden potions. One of these potions was one that could put a person under someone's absolute control which was banned for obvious reasons. Katya managed to steal the key to the vault where the forbidden potions were kept and planned to use this potion on Natalya._

_That was bad enough but there was a bigger problem when Katya stole the wrong potion._

_The was another kind of potion that was banned. Love potions was a misnomer as they did not make people fall in love, they created obsession and envy. If the victim was rejected by the object of their 'affection', they obsessed about, harassed and generally stalked that person. They became insanely jealous of anyone who had what they wanted and could not have. Assaults and even murder had been the result so the potions became forbidden._

_Not knowing what she was about to do, Katya tipped the love potion she had picked up by mistake into Natalya's drink. As Natalya finished her refreshment, her brother, King Ivan, came to visit her._

_So started Natalya's slide into obsessive insanity that lead to so many suffering. She wanted her brother, jealous of her sister and she cursed them both, her sister Katyusha because she was convinced her sister also wanted Ivan and she cursed Ivan when he rejected her advances._

_Ironically, it sort of gave Katya what she wanted. Natalya restored her youth but only by so much and, as she became increasingly insane, she would only do it again as long as Katya did not leave and served her. If she did leave, Natalya would refuse to restore her youth again and let her die._

_And so Katya effectively became Natalya's slave, watching as Natalya kidnapped King Romulus's first-born son, Prince Lovino, for a slight that Natalya's insanity told her had happened. Watching as events unfolded that led to Natalya cursing Lovino's brother, Prince Feliciano and her destruction at the hands of Prince Ludwig to save Feli as a result._

  
That was what losing control of the situation led to and Katya would not let that happen again. And that meant keeping Natasha under her absolute control. Which meant no journey to pick up any stupid seashells to make any stupid paint, so she turned back.

Katya had not got far when she heard a rustling in the bushes. She froze as the rustling grew more frenzied and then screamed as a German Shepherd with a collar bearing the Triple Monarchy Royal sun insignia leapt out.

Berlitz jumped out at the person he heard trampling through the woods but was disappointed to see it was not his target but a woman. Although there was something about the scent that surrounded her. It was not her scent but something that clung. Faint but familiar.

Katya drew back, afraid that the dog would attack her but calmed when the dog settled down.

"A palace lapdog," she sneered and then realised that something or, rather, someone was missing.

"Where's your handler?" she breathed. The dog just cocked his head at her while Katya's worse fear came into her head.

"Natasha!" she gasped and turned and ran. Berlitz watched her go, puzzled.

_'Strange human'_, he thought and then resumed his search for that last thief.

* * *

Katya raced as fast as she could back to the tower, with her heart pounding. Natasha had to still be there. There was no way she would disobey her mother.

Was there?

"Natasha! Let down your hair!" she cried out, desperately. There was no reply and no hair fell from the window. Maybe she had not heard her.

"Natasha!" she called, again. Silence answered her.

She ran to the sealed-up door and began to desperately pull the rocks away. When she had removed enough of the blockage, she opened the door and ran up the spiral staircase. The trapdoor creaked from years of non use as Katya pushed it open. The tower was dark and silent. Perhaps Natasha was in her room.

"Natasha!" No answer. Katya ran from room to room in a panic, whipping open the drapes and opening the wardrobes but there was no sign of Natasha. Katya stood in the centre of the main room, breathing hard, grabbing her hair in panic.

Where was she? Why did she leave? How did she leave? Oh, she was going to die! Natasha was gone and Katya would grow old and die!

Then she stepped back and the floorboard under her heel sank and the other end flipped up and hit her in the butt. Everything was against her, even the tower was attacking her now. Then she wondered why the floorboard was loose.

She picked up the loose floorboard and saw a shadow of something. She reached under and pulled out a satchel. Opening the satchel, she pulled out what was inside and examined it and when she saw what is was, she dropped it and really panicked.

She recognised the crown instantly, after all everybody knew about it. How did it come to be here? Had Natasha somehow realised who she really was and was even now trying to make her way to the palace. If that happened, Natasha would be lost to her forever but how did the crown get here in the first place and why did Natasha not take it with her?

Then she spotted something else sticking out of the satchel. Pulling it out, she saw it was a wanted poster for someone called Steve Rogers so that answered her question but did his nose really look like that? Steve Rogers, wanted thief, had stolen the crown and brought it here where he then stole Natasha.

Grabbing a dagger from a drawer, Katya was determined to get her back.

* * *

"Ah! There it is! The Curious Owl!"

They had been walking for about fifteen minutes with Steve touting the virtues of the establishment they were heading for. All the better to deter his own private pain in the ….. from this obsession of hers.

The Curious Owl looked just like any other tavern on the outside. Homey with stables and a sign with the tavern's name on it. On the inside, well, that was a different story.

"Don't worry," he reassured. "It's a quaint, quiet place, suitable for someone like you. Don't want you getting scared and running back home now!" _Yeah right!_ he thought.

"It looks nice," Natasha commented, thinking of the animals she sometimes saw from the tower and identified from the books Mother brought for her. "And I do like owls."

"Yay!" Flynn replied, with a hint of sarcasm as he led her to the door.

* * *

That damned Greek had been annoying him from the moment he walked through the door with the damned cat. Sadik did not know why he had not killed him already. Right now, he had said Greek by the front of his shirt.

"Any more of that naked Spartan bullsh*t, Feta-breath," he growled. "And I'll gut you and that damned cat." The black and white cat took exception of this treatment of his master and lashed out with his claws. Sadik yelped and withdrew his injured hand that the cat had just scratched.

Hercules petted Lucifer. Lucifer's behaviour had improved in the time Hercules had had him but sometimes he reverted to old habits but, in this case, Hercules was prepared to over-look it. Just as Sadik was going to beat some sense into Hercules and his cat, the door burst opened and an American accent announced, "Landlord, your finest table please!" followed by a horrified gasp.

Everyone in the dingy inn turned to see a blonde man with a cowlick, glasses and sky-blue eyes stood beside a young girl with platinum blonde hair, blue-purple eyes and a scared expression on her face at all the faces staring back at her, not a friendly one among them. She whipped out a frying pan and held it out in front of her in defence.

Steve took hold of Natasha's shoulders and pushed her into the inn.

"Can ya smell that?" he asked. "Take a big breath through your nose. Ya know, it all smells kinda brown, don't it?" Natasha squealed as she felt someone grab her hair. She turned to see a rough man with a beard and moustache holding her hair and she began pulling it through his hands to try and get it away from him. When she had stood in the doorway, the patrons of the inn could tell her hair was long but this was beyond what they were expecting.

"That's a lot of hair," the rough man commented as the hair continued to flow through his hands with much more to go.

"Yeah," Steve commented. "She's growing it out. Hey! Like the blood in your moustache! Hey, Blondie, come here and look at all this blood in his moustache!" 'Blondie', however, had no intention and just backed away, bumping into a large ox of a man and aimed her frying pan at him when he growled at her.

"You look scared, Blondie," Steve commented and began steering her toward the door. "Maybe we should call it a day and get you home. After all, this establishment's high-class and if you can't handle this..." Suddenly the front door was slammed, shutting them in. A big man, wearing a horned helmet held it shut and asked, "Is this you?"

Steve realised that he was in trouble when he saw that on the back of the door was a wanted poster of Steve's face. With a nose longer than a lying Pinocchio.

"Now that's just being nasty!"

Suddenly everyone descended on him, grabbing him away from each other, screaming that the reward was theirs while someone ran to summon the royal guard. As he was pulled from person to person, Steve's neck cloth came loose and fell to the floor.

Natasha ran around them, trying to pull them off and whacking a few backs with the frying pan.

"Let him go," she screamed. "He's my guide, I need him. Please stop!" No one listened.

Sadik had got the upper-hand as the others held Steve down but Steve continued to struggle so he drew back his fist to knock him out.

"Please, not the nose," Steve begged. He did not want a nose like one that was on the posters. Before the blow could land, however, something wrapped around Sadik's wrist and pulled him off his feet. When he looked, he found his wrist in a loop of hair that was attached to the girl. He glared at her.

"Let him go!," Natasha commanded. "I don't know where I am and I need HIM to take me to the flying lanterns because I've always wanted to see them for as long as I can remember. Have you never had a dream?"

Sadik approached her with menace in his eyes but as he closed in, he realised that no one had ever ask him that question, no one had cared enough. This innocent young girl who did not know a thing about him, was asking about his deepest wish. Natasha pressed her back against the bar as the tall man in the white face mask came toward her. He looked down at her and for a moment, she thought she was in danger.

"I did have a dream once," he suddenly said. She looked at him in surprise. "I'm malicious, I'm mean, I'm scary. I have a sneer that curdles milk still inside the cow. I've no clean record when it comes to violence. I hide my face behind a mask and I have a temper but I wasn't always like this. When I was younger, I really wanted to become a chef ."

Steve gave him a strange look. Big, hard criminal, wanting to be something so...so....well.... _ domestic! _ And admitting it out loud in front of other tough types!

"I wanted to make dishes that would leave people in ecstasy," Sadik continued. "To give people heavenly cuisine. But I ended up as a thief. I would still like to be a chef but it's not likely with my past."

"It's not too late," Natasha reassured him. "You can still do that if you really want to."

Sadik just smiled at her naivety.

"I want to be a musician," said a man in a red coat with black hair and reddish-brown eyes as he sat behind the old broken piano that sat against the wall. Roland Edelstein was lazy and a bit of a brat who hung around with the wrong element, just to annoy his family but he loved music, as long as it was not classical. His cousin, Roderich liked that rubbish.

"He's not bad, actually," Sadik confided.

"Can you imagine me playing to a big crowd?" he smiled. "Perhaps before Royalty. Tickling the ivories 'till they bleed and being adored for my music. Deep down inside that's my dream."

"Go for it!" Natasha encouraged. "You never know unless you try."

* * *

Katya had reached the Curious Owl to hear the sound of people having a good time. She had never been inside the inn but she knew it was famous for being a watering hole for the criminal element. She just hoped Natasha was not inside.

* * *

"I just want to fall in love," another one of the inn occupants said. Andres Carriedo was a man with long, brown hair and several really bad scars and wore a brown matador suit of the Kingdom of Spain and liked sharpening his swords and knives. He was quite a romantic and wanted to feel that elusive emotion and have someone feel it for him. "I'd love to row down the stream with a special someone. I might not look it but I'm a lover, not a fighter. I know I leave people screaming but it's my dream to be in love." Natasha thought the man would have a lovely personality if he left the knives alone. Someone, somewhere had to be looking for that.

"I'm sure you'll find someone to love," she said, confidently.

Steve's jaw dropped. Was Blondie casting a spell over these thugs?

"I want to write romances!" said Matt Williams, a man with long blonde hair in a messy ponytail with a curling strand. He reminded Steve of someone but he could not quite remember who!

"I want to be a interior designer!"

"I want to be an actor!"

"I bake cupcakes!" said a small man who also tweaked Steve's memory, with blue eyes and big eyebrows, strawberry blonde hair, pink and blue clothing and a demented smile, offering cupcakes to everyone. Despite how delicious they looked, there were no takers!

"I paint!" "I make my own clothes!" "I do ventriloquism!"

"I collect ornaments!" Steve rolled his eyes. These guys had gone mad.

"I just want a happily ever after," Hercules said, elusively. "And maybe open a cattery." Lucifer meowed, seemingly in agreement.

"What about you?" Sadik asked. It took a moment for Steve to realise that Sadik was talking to him.

"What about me?" he said.

"What's your dream?" Sadik pressed. Flynn shook his head, he was not doing this.

"I don't do 'share my inner thoughts'," he said, adamantly. And changed his mind when Sadik pulled a big curved sword on him. "All right. I want to, one day, be really wealthy and own my own island." There was no way Steve would tell anyone his real dream. That was private, not even the twins knew the reason why he picked a ship to Italy. Besides, all real thieves dreamed of wealth, did they not?

Sadik was not impressed. Money was a necessity, not a dream. Money was commonplace. He should know, he stole it every day.

Nobody saw Katya looking in through the window at Natasha surrounded by thieves and rogues, having a good time. Why was she not scared?

"And your dream, little one?" Sadik asked, softly.

"I just want to see the flying lanterns," she replied. "I've seen them at a distance my whole life. I want to see them up close, just once." The dream might seem small but to Sadik, it was like wanting to see a loved one you had been separated from for years. Now that was a dream!

"You know, I was scared to leave my home," Natasha admitted. "But after meeting you I'm glad I did. I mean, look at us! We're all different but we all have dreams and they'll come true, I just know it!" Everyone cheered.

Katya did not like what she was hearing. If Natasha continued to enjoy the outside world, it would be harder to make her stay in the tower. After all, she had already left when she did not even know what the outside world was like!

Inside the inn, everyone raised their tankards.

"To dreams coming true!"

Then the front door burst open and the man who went for the authorities ran in.

"I've brought the guards!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next : Arthur looks for help to find Alfred and 'Steve' and Natasha have a lot of running to do....


	5. On The Run!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for a quick getaway....

** **Chapter 5 : On The Run!** **

  


Steve grabbed Natasha and dragged her to the other side of the bar counter, ducking down, just in time before soldiers burst in with the Jones Brothers, all tied up. Everyone turned to look at the, shall we say, invited intruders. Steve inched quietly behind the bar with Natasha in toe when a curved sword came down in front of him. He looked up at Sadik in front of him and Hercules behind Natasha, looking down at them. This was it! They were going to turn him in for the reward.

Sadik's eyes flicked to the side and Steve followed his line of sight. There was nothing but the floor and Steve looked back at Sadik and then turned to look at Hercules who reached out and pulled one of the ale pumps. The floor fell down, revealing a hidden tunnel and Steve and Natasha peered into the darkness. Hercules and Sadik knelt down beside them.

"Go live your dream," Hercules said. "Make it come true!"

"I will!" Steve declared, thinking of his family. Sadik snorted, not knowing Steve's real dream.

"Your dream stinks!" he replied. "He's talking to her!" Hercules smiled. He knew what Steve's real dream was, so he was talking to both of them. He exchanged a glance with the little flying squirrel on Natasha's shoulder and a message seemed to pass between them as they disappeared into the tunnel and the floor was raised behind them.

* * *

"We were told that the thief, Steven Rogers, is in this establishment," Luciano announced, his voice filling the bar room. "Hand him over and you can claim the reward!" Sadik stepped forward and said, "You got me!" And smirked. Luciano's lip curled. The man looked nothing like the wanted poster, especially the wonky nose!

"I'm the one you want," Roland contradicted. "Steve Rogers, at your service!"

"No," Andres stood up. "I'm Rogers!"

"Don't talk rubbish, eh," Matt retorted. "I'm Rogers!" At least that one had looked a little like Rogers but it was not him either.

"No, I am!"

"Here I am!"

"No, it's me!" Luciano knew they were all lying and exploded. "SHUT UP!"

"Search this place!" he ordered. "Flavio, you search upstairs!" And all of the soldiers, apart from the two standing guard over the Jones brothers, began to look into every nook and cranny. Flavio ran up the stairs to the upper floor.

"No sign, Luciano," he called down after a while. Sadik gave a small smile.

Then Berlitz showed up at the door.

* * *

It was late afternoon and Arthur waited for an audience with Ludwig and Feliciano but he was cursing his timing. He had forgotten that tomorrow was their daughter's sixteenth birthday. Their missing daughter! Perhaps not the best time to ask for help finding his missing son.

What made it even more sad was the couple never had any more children. Spare souls were not found lying around every day and, despite the risk being small (Lovino carried Marcello with no problems), Ludwig refused to risk Feli again.

"Ve~ Uncle Arthur," Feliciano's voice had Arthur turning from the window. Having raised the lad for sixteen years, Feli never got out of the habit of calling all the Fae 'Uncle' despite the fact Feli was now thirty-four years old and looked older than Arthur. But to Arthur he would always be that little boy who thought he was a girl. (long story!).

"Hello, Your Majesty," Arthur smiled fondly at his former charge.

"None of that!" Ludwig said as he came through the door. "You and the other Fae are practically family. No need for formality! Now, to what do we owe the pleasure of this visit?"

"It doesn't matter," Arthur replied. "I've come at the worst time. I forgot what time of year it was"

"Please, Uncle Arthur," Feli took Arthur's hands and squeezed them. "Tell us what you need!" Arthur sighed.

"I've lost my lead on Alfred," he replied. "The last thing I found out, he was with two brothers, Allen and Alex Jones, then after a while, he seemed to leave their company and that's when I lost his trail. The brothers picked up someone else, a Steven Rogers." Then Arthur noticed that both men had gone very still.

"You know them, don't you?" he asked, getting the feeling that their opinion was not high.

"This morning, Rogers and the Jones Brothers stole the crown I had made for our daughter," Ludwig said. Arthur groaned. That was the couple's most prized possession.

"Why are you looking for them?" Ludwig continued. Arthur blew out a breath.

"They might know where Alfred went to," he sighed. Ludwig nodded.

"When we catch them," he replied. "You can ask them!"

"As if criminals like that would even tell me the truth!" Arthur replied. "They'll probably demand a pardon for their crimes in return."

"Use a Veritas Spell," Ludwig suggested. "There's no way they'll get a pardon."

* * *

Berlitz had finally found the scent he had been searching for, along with another, the one he had scented around the strange human female earlier and he had tracked it to the Curious Owl. Everyone in the bar room turned to look at him as he sniffed the air.

"Stand back!" Luciano ordered. "Give Berlitz room to work!"

Berlitz analysed the smells in the room, some of them really foul, and caught the scent of the thief in the room, along with the other scent that was pulling at his memory but he concentrated on the thief. That was the one he was after.

He began sniffing the ground, moving around the floor, sniffing at the lost neck scarf on the way and eventually made his way behind the bar counter. He came up to the floor and the scent stopped. But when Berlitz stepped on it, he felt the floor give a little and the scent drifted up from beneath. As the dog began to sniff around, he saw a rope that ran up to one of the beer pumps and when he sniffed the pump, he caught a scent on the handle. He walked up to the landlord to catch his scent and determined that the landlord was not the one who had last used the pump. He padded back to the pump, took the handle between his teeth and pulled.

The floor behind the bar fell, revealing the tunnel and Sadik's smile drooped. Berlitz gave a wolfish grin, as did Luciano.

"Let's go," he ordered but addressed one of the soldiers, pointing at the Jones Brothers. "You, guard them!" The soldier covered the twins with his spear as the others followed Berlitz into the tunnel.

The remaining soldier was vigilant but was not expecting Alex Jones to head-butt him into unconsciousness and Alex caught the spear as it fell, using it to release Allen who took the spear and returned the favour.

"Now let's get the crown," he said. "And our traitor."

* * *

Katya overheard the brothers and watched them disappear into the tunnel. If she could find out where the exit was she could catch Natasha and Rogers at the other end.

Roland wandered out, wanting not to be here when the soldiers came back. Suddenly, he was grabbed and pinned against the wall by what looked like a middle aged woman who held a knife to his throat.

"Tell me where that tunnel lets out?!" she threatened. "Or you'll never play the piano again!"

* * *

The Jones Brothers followed the soldiers at a distance so not to be noticed. The soldiers ignored various turnings but the twins decided to take a turning that led down. It might get them ahead of Rogers but if it did not, well, they could always hunt him down.

He was not getting away with that crown!

* * *

Unaware that their escape route had been discovered, Steve and Natasha wandered down the tunnel with a fire torch from the beginning of the tunnel, lighting their way. Steve was still amazed at what had happened back in the Curious Owl.

"How did you do all that?" he asked. "You had all those tough types falling all over themselves for you! I didn't know you had that in you!"

"I KNOW!" Natasha had amazed herself with what happened, then thought she should sound like she did this kind of thing everyday so she did not sound hopelessly naïve. "I know."

Silence hung between them for a while and Natasha felt she had to break it.

"So," she began. "Where are you from?" Steve immediately began to wave his hands negatively.

"Oh no!" he said, adamantly. "No, no, no! I don't do that sort of thing. But you, I'm fascinated by. Now, I figure the thing with the hair is off-limits?"

"Correct!"

"And I shouldn't mention the over-protective mother?"

"Right!"

"And I don't know what to make of the guinea pig!"

"Squirrel," Natasha corrected.

"Details," Steve said, dismissively. "But here's what I want to know! If seeing the lights means so much to you, why haven't you gone before?" Natasha bit her lower lip, nervously. Telling would mean telling him about her hair and she was not doing that.

"It's …... complicated!" she replied, evasively. Steve was about to ask her to elaborate when stones on the floor began jumping around and the ground began rumbling.

"Steve!" Natasha said, a little scared. They both looked back at the other end of the tunnel to see soldiers, led by Luciano, running toward them.

"ROGERS!"

"Not good!" Steve grabbed Natasha and they began running, Natasha trying to pull her hair into her arms as she ran. Fortunately, the guards were hindered by the narrowness of the tunnel so Steve and Natasha were able to put some distance between them and the soldiers. They saw light ahead and ran out into the sunshine.

They found themselves on a ledge, looking down at a quarry floor and a dam above them that was turning a water wheel and feeding water down a wooden aqueduct. The only way down to the quarry floor was a rope ladder that did not look particularly safe and Steve was not sure he wanted to risk it. But they could not go back and Steve could see the only exit on the quarry floor, another opening in the wall face.

The only other opening was boarded up but the boards were knocked away and the Jones Twins, who had taken another turning in the tunnel and found themselves going downwards, erupted from the opening.

"Who are they?" Natasha asked as she eyed the two warily.

"Let's just say they don't like me," Steve admitted, putting it mildly. The guards burst out of tunnel behind them.

"Who are they?"

"They don't like me either!" Then Berlitz came from the tunnel and burst through the guards.

"Before you ask," Steve said. "Just assume that nobody here likes me!" Natasha slapped her frying pan into Steve's stomach and he grabbed it, instinctively. Natasha grabbed her hair and cracked it like a whip. The end of it wrapped round one of the wooden supports of the aqueduct and she made sure it tightened around the support.

“Hold on to me!” she called to Steve. He stuck the frying pan in his belt and he wrapped his arms around her, warily.....then screamed as she jumped from the ledge taking him with her.

Kiku took his own chances and leapt, his extra skin catching the wind and he glided through the air, sailing over the quarry gorge. He would be needed later.

* * *

Luciano had drawn his sword, smirking when he saw Rogers and the girl trapped on the ledge with nowhere to go.

"I've been waiting for this," he thought. But then he saw the girl shove a frying pan? at Rogers before throwing her very, _very _long hair and wrapping in around a support on the waterway. Rogers then wrapped his arms around the girl who then leapt off the ledge, taking Rogers with her.

  
“What the Hell!” he swore as they swung out of sight for a moment only for them to swing back into view to land on a ledge on the other side of the quarry.

* * *

Berlitz had finally found his prey and he was going to make him pay for upsetting his master and his mate but his prey had, once again, escaped him. He watched as Steve swung away from him with a young human female and, once again, a scent pulled at his memory but he had no time to analyse it. He was going to get that thief if it was the last thing he did.

* * *

Steve had a slight inkling of what Natasha was going to do but some part of him did not think she was really going to do it and he screamed as they fell into free fall before her hair arrested their fall and they began to swing.

Straight toward the Jones Brothers. They saw Steve and Natasha swinging toward them and readied their knives and waited for them to arrive. Natasha willed her hair to pull them up and Steve wondered how they suddenly rose above the slashing blades. They swung up and landed on a ledge on the other side of the quarry.

Natasha and Steve breathed a sigh of relief that they had made it but then they heard growling.

* * *

Annoyed that his prey had got away, Berlitz began chewing and pulling at the ropes that held a very large wooden beam support to the dam above them. The rope snapped and the beam fell, spanning the gap between the two ledges. Berlitz began to run across the beam to confront the female human who had helped his prey escape.

Natasha felt someone tugging on her arm and she turned and Steve was pulling her toward the waterway that ran past the other side of the ledge.

"Come on, Blondie!" he shouted and they ran to the edge. Steve suddenly picked her up and he jumped, landing in the waterway. They began to slide down the waterway, aided by the water that was cascading down the aqueduct, Natasha's hair flying behind her.

And then Steve jumped again, to a neighbouring water course and they began sliding in the opposite direction but the force of Steve and Natasha's landing caused the aqueduct to break apart. Steve leapt to a lower part and rode it down to the ground, both of them rolling as he landed. Steve got up, picked up the trailing end of Natasha's hair as they ran for a newly revealed opening in the rock wall with the Jones brothers, who had watched their descent down the aqueduct, in pursuit.

But Berlitz's removal of the support beam had a detrimental effect and the dam burst loose.

* * *

Water cascaded down into the quarry, destroying the waterwheel and what was left of the aqueduct. Luciano, Flavio and their men had bolted back into the tunnel, back toward the Curious Owl but Berlitz, on the other side of the quarry, was swept away.

The Jones Brothers heard the roar behind them and looked just in time to see the wall of water rushing at them. They only just had time to take a deep breath before the water hit and they were swept away in the direction of the tunnel they had used to get to the quarry.

Natasha and Steve were still running, each carrying large piles of Natasha's hair and not wasting time or energy looking back at the water that roared like an angry animal behind them. The water hit a stone column in the middle of the quarry and the force of it made it fall.

Down toward Steve and Natasha!

Running for the opening, they knew something was coming down on them because they could see the shadow but they did not dare stop running. They could see the water either side of them now and ran faster.

They bolted into the tunnel, just as the stone pillar hit the ground and blocked the opening. Outside, the water filled the quarry, covering the stone pillar and water was pouring in through the gaps between the opening and the stone pillar, filling the tunnel but Steve and Natasha kept running through the tunnel, hoping to reach the other end before the water got to them.

And hit a dead end when they came to a rock fall. The tunnel was blocked!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Steve' opens up to Natasha....


	6. Alfred

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha gets to know 'Steve' better....

** **Chapter 6 : Alfred** **

  
  


As the water began to flood in, Natasha and Steve moved back into the tunnel as far as they could before coming up against the rock fall and climbed up it as the water began to rise. With no way out in sight, Steve dove into the rising water to try and find a way out that might be under the surface.

Natasha waited nervously for Steve to surface. The seconds ticked by but, just when she began to feel really worried, his head broke the surface. He gasped for air, took a deep breath and dove again while Natasha attacked the walls with the frying pan to no avail.

Steve resurfaced, climbed out of the water and tried to dislodge rocks with his bare hands. His hand slipped on the rocks and he cried out in pain as a sharp edge cut into his palm. Giving that route up as a way out, he tried under water again while Natasha went back to smacking at the rocks with the skillet.

Steve burst through the surface and gasped. He climbed up and braced himself on the rocks.

"It's no good!" he said, gasping for air. "I can't see a thing!" So she dove under the water herself but Steve dove after her and pulled her back up to the air.

"There's no use!" he told her. "It's pitch black down there!"

Natasha pressed her back against the rock that was trapping them both as she realised that this was it. What ran through her head was the thought that her mother was right! She said Natasha would regret leaving the tower, that something bad would happen and it had. She was going to die and what was worse, she had dragged Steve down with her. She should have just given him the satchel and let him go. If she had, he would not be about to die with her.

"This is all my fault," she whispered, on the verge of tears. "Mother was right, I shouldn't have done this!" She sniffed. Steve looked regretful because this was not her fault. He had been the one they were after, not her!

"I'm so, so sorry, Steve," she sincerely apologised and then sobbed.

"Alfred!"

"What?" Natasha asked, realising Steve had said something.

"My name," he replied. "It's Alfred F. Jones. I'd like someone to know." Natasha gave a small laugh. He was telling her something he knew she could never repeat to anyone else. She might as well return the favour.

"I have magic hair that glows when I sing," she told him. Steve/Alfred gave a confused frown.

"What?"

Natasha suddenly realised what she had said.

"I have magic hair that GLOWS when I sing!" If her hair glows under the water …..The water had risen to their chins. She did not have much time.

"Flowergleamandglow," she rushed. "Letyourpowershine." The water rose the last few inches and she took a deep breath before they were both completely submerged. She completed the song in her head, hoping that would count.

Steve/Alfred saw nothing but blackness as the water came over his head. Suddenly light shone in the water-filled tunnel as meters of white blonde hair glowed and revealed every nook and cranny. Steve/Alfred almost lost the breath he had taken, only just stifling his cry of surprise. He followed the long length of hair and noticed some of it drifting toward a pile of the rocks, as if being pulled by something.

Alfred swam down to the rocks, followed by Natasha, and began to pull at them. Natasha began to help and one by one the rocks were moved.

On the other side of the rock fall, water fell through the cracks and increased in volume as more and more rocks were removed from the other side. Then Alfred's hand burst through. It retreated a little and began pushing rocks away from the sides of the opening and,when enough had been dislodged, the others loosened and fell. Water rushed out of the tunnel and into a river created by the water from the quarry dam, Alfred and Natasha carried along with it.

They made their way to the edge and hung on to the bank, coughing up water and gasping for air. Kiku spiralled down from the sky, on to the grass and ran up to the two humans, clinging to dry land.

"We made it!" Natasha panted. Alfred was taking deep breaths to get air into his oxygen-starved lungs. Then his head came up.

"Her hair glows!" Kiku stared up at him.

"We're alive!" Natasha rejoiced as she pulled herself out of the water. Alfred was still obsessing about Natasha's hair.

"I never saw that coming," he said and looked down at Kiku.

"Steve!"

"WHY DOES HER HAIR GLOW?"

"ALFRED!"

"WHAT!" He looked up to see Natasha pull the rest of her hair from the water. She looked at him, sheepishly.

"It doesn't just glow," she admitted. Alfred looked down at Kiku who looked back with what seemed like an upturn to his little furry mouth as Kiku realised that Natasha was going to trust Alfred a little more.

"Why's he smiling at me?"

* * *

Swept further away, Berlitz managed to climb from the water. Being hit by the torrent might have killed anything else but, thanks to Marcello, Berlitz survived it easily but he still lay on solid ground, panting for air and trying to get his strength back. When he did recover, he was going to track that thief.

And this time he would get him!

* * *

After being swept back up their tunnel by the water, the Jones Brothers swam to the surface and made their way back through the tunnel to another turning which lead them to a secret trap door, hidden inside the trunk of a tree, the real exit from the Curious Owl tunnel. They pulled themselves out, still coughing and spluttering.

Katya was waiting at the exit, hiding behind another tree with her dagger ready. Once Rogers emerged, she would get rid of him. She would tell some lie to Natasha, that Rogers had some evil plan in mind for her or, if Katya could eliminate him without Natasha seeing, that he ran off. Nothing would come between her and her little fountain of youth.

When the trapdoor opened, she readied herself but was disappointed when, instead of Rogers and Natasha, the Twins emerged, a little the worse for wear from their impromptu swim.

"I'm gonna kill 'im!" Allen swore and then coughed again. "I'm gonna kill that Steve Rogers!"

"Not if I get to him first!" Alex countered. Katya smiled. So these two hated Rogers, did they? Maybe she could use them!

"Let's get that crown back," Allen replied. "And make Rogers wish he'd never been born!" They were after the crown! Good thing she had brought it with her.

"Oh boys!"

Both twins turned around to look at the owner of the voice. A woman who was the high side of middle age stood on a rock, looking down at them.

"Looking for this?" she asked, sweetly and held up the satchel, containing the crown. At the sight of it, both brothers pulled out their swords. Katya laughed.

"You don't need those," she said and threw the satchel at their feet. They both grabbed and tussled with it until Allen reached in and pulled out the crown. Assured that they had their prize, they smiled at each other.

"Well, if that's all you want," Katya said, dismissively. "I'll be going but I thought you might be interested in something worth more than a hundred of those and that's not even the best part." She could tell the brothers were intrigued.

"What's the best part?" Alex asked. Katya smiled and held up the badly drawn wanted poster.

"You'll get your revenge on Steven Rogers," she sang.

Both brothers smiled, evilly.

* * *

By the time Alfred and Natasha made camp, it was dark. The camp fire crackled as they sat on a fallen tree beside it while Natasha wound her hair around the cut in Alfred's palm.

"Are ya gonna to tell me why you're wrapping your hair 'round my injured hand?" Alfred asked while Natasha concentrated on her task. Some strands grazed the cut and he hissed in pain.

"Sorry!" Natasha apologised. "Now please, don't freak out!" Alfred looked down at the hair around his hand, feeling a little worried at those words. Natasha took a deep breath and closed her eyes, hoping that revealing everything her hair could do would not be a mistake and she took her leap of faith.

  
  


_ _ Flower, gleam and glow  _ _ (The roots of her hair began glowing and began to travel down the strands)

_ _ Let your power shine _ _

__Make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine__ (The glow swept through the hair by Kiku who held up a little claw and waved it at Alfred)

_ _ You, who has been hurt, change the fate's design  _ _ (The glow had reached the end of Natasha's hair and now glowed around Alfred's hand, making it tingle as it did so)

_ _ Save what has been lost, bring back what once was mine _ _

_ _ What once was mine! _ _

  
  


Kiku was smiling and nodding his little head at Alfred. Natasha stopped singing, her hair stopped glowing and she opened her eyes, looking apprehensively at Alfred. He looked down at his hand and slowly unravelled Natasha's hair from around it.

The cut was gone from his palm. Not even a scar.

Alfred drew in a deep breath. Of course he had heard of magic but, growing up in America where belief in magic had dwindled to the level of fantasy, he kind of lost his belief in it as real and it was only since coming to Italy he began to think that there was anything in it and now proof was before his eyes, he looked like he was going to scream.

"Please, don't freak out!" Natasha begged.

"I'm not freaking out," Alfred replied, in freak-out mode. "Why would I freak out? Oh my god! Magic hair! Magic, glowing hair! Magic, glowing, healing hair. Oh my god! How long's it been doing that?" Natasha gave a little giggle at Alfred's nervous excitement.

"Forever, I guess," she replied. And then her mood fell. "Mother said when I was a baby, people tried to take it from me. They cut it, wanting it for themselves." She pulled her hair to one side, revealing a short lock that was auburn. Natasha kept that deliberately short. Her mother did not like to see it.

"When it's cut," she continued as Alfred examined the lock. "It becomes like this and loses it's power. My gift has to be protected so that's why mother never allowed me ….. That's why I never left ….. " Natasha broke off.

"Why you never left the tower," Alfred finished for her. Something was wrong with this situation, Alfred could sense it. Natasha could have been taken out and about without revealing her secret and Alfred would bet his life that Natasha had never even put a single toe outside of the tower before he came along. He wondered if the mother's over-protection was less about keeping Natasha safe and more about keeping Natasha to herself.

It was no way to live. He had not had the best life from what he could remember from the age of eight but he had been out in the world and he had a goal. He dreamed, at night, of three people. Their faces were fuzzy but he could see their eyes. Green, blue, violet. They were his family, he knew it, and something told him they were out there, looking for him. And he would find them. One day!

This innocent, young girl had no one except, he suspected, a mother that could be using Natasha for her own purposes. It was just wrong!

"Are you still gonna go back?" he asked. He wondered who would choose a life like that but he realised that this was all Natasha had ever known. She had nothing to compare it to.

"No!" she replied, adamantly but then thought of her mother. "Yes." Then she was uncertain. It was nice out here, in the sunshine. She thought that the men in the Curious Owl were nice (once you really got to know them) but what if everybody was not. She was so indecisive now and she buried her face in her hands.

"I don't know!" she said, troubled. She looked up, took a deep breath and turned to Alfred.

"So Alfred F. Jones, huh," she said, questioningly.

"Boring story," he replied. "Found in New York, America by Frederick Jones, hence the F. Jones. Bit of a downer, really." Natasha moved closer to Flynn and began to listen, intensely. Alfred chuckled.

"The twins back at the quarry," he explained. "We kinda travelled together but I began to dislike some of things they did and, because they were called F. Jones too, people thought we were all related. So I decided to change my name."

"Well, there was this book," he continued. "I used to read it to the younger orphans. The Tales of Steven Rogers, Captain of America. Strong, fast, tough. He'd never brag, of course." Natasha giggled.

"Was he a thief?" she asked. Alfred looked thoughtful.

"No!" he admitted. "Actually, he was a superhero. He fought for his country and to a kid who had nothing, well, it just seemed so much better." Natasha smiled at Alfred's whimsical tone.

"Did you steal that crown?" she asked. "Do you really want to be wealthy that badly?" Alfred looked down and seemed to decide something."

"What I said about my dream," he said and looked up. "Back at the Curious Owl! It wasn't true. I just said that because I thought that's what they wanted to hear. I stole the crown to help make my real dream come true."

"What is your real dream?" Natasha asked, intrigued.

"To find my family," he admitted. "I've no memory before the age of eight, except my first name. But I dream of three people and I know they're my family. I want to find them but that takes money so I stole the crown."

"Stealing's not a good thing," Natasha admonished. "But I can understand that you want to find your family. It's quite sweet, really!"

"Don't tell anyone, okay?" he begged. "It could ruin my reputation if it got out."

"Oh! We wouldn't want that," Natasha teased.

"Well," Alfred teased back. "A fake reputation's all a man has!" Natasha laughed and somehow they found themselves looking into each other's eyes. Alfred saw the pretty, charming, vulnerable young woman she was. He wanted her to really see the world, to taste freedom and never want to let it go. He wanted her to truly live.

Natasha saw a handsome, young man, yearning for something he did not remember, his cocky attitude compensating for how lonely he really was and she truly wished for his dream to come true some day and she hoped she would be there to see it.

Natasha realised that Alfred was looking at her with a soft look in his blue eyes that made her heart pound. Did that mean what she thought?

Alfred found himself staring into Natasha's blue-purple eyes and admiring her lovely, innocent expression, wanting to make sure she never lost it. To keep her with him to protect her and to be a hero like the Steve Rogers in his book. Suddenly his thoughts made him very self-conscious and he stood up, clearing his throat.

"I'll just go get some more firewood," he said and began to walk toward the trees.

"Hey!" she called after him. He turned back to her. "Just so you know, I like Alfred F. Jones better than Steve Rogers." She would call him Alfred from now on. Alfred smiled.

"Thanks," he replied. "You're the only one so far." And he disappeared into the trees.

Natasha watched the spot where he had been, a soft smile on her face.

"I thought he'd never leave!"

Natasha froze at the sound of her mother's voice. Oh no! She had found her! Kiku scampered up into a tree.

She turned to face her mother. Katya was looking haggard and older than normal.

"Hello, dear," Katya said in a mocking voice.

"Mother!" Natasha gasped. "How did you find me?" Katya pulled Natasha into a possessive hug.

"Oh, it was easy," she replied, sticking in the knife. "I just listened for the sound of complete and utter betrayal and followed that!" Actually Katya and the Jones brothers had followed the direction of the flood water and spotted the camp fire. Natasha felt a little ashamed.

"Mother, I …." But 'Mother' was not listening.

"We're going home, Natasha, NOW!" she ordered, grabbing Natasha's arm and pulling her along. Natasha pulled her to a halt.

"Mother, please," she begged. "This journey has been incredible and I've learned a great deal." Katya did not want to hear this, did not want to hear how much Natasha was enjoying the outside world. She would want to stay where she would meet people....and increase the chances of someone realising who she really was.

"I've even met someone!" That, Katya definitely did not want to hear.

"Yes," she replied, scornfully. "The wanted thief! What every mother wants to hear. I'm so proud! Now let's go!" And she started dragging Natasha from the camp. Natasha pulled her arm from Katya's grip.

"Please, mother," she begged. "I think …. I think he likes me."

Katya definitely had to get rid of Rogers now. Natasha was in a romantic haze and would go with Rogers if he asked it of her. Something Katya would never allow.

"That's completely demented, Natasha," she commented, harshly. "Now you know why you should have stayed where you were. This invented romance just proves you're too naïve for the outside world." And she began to circle Natasha like a vulture.

"Why would he like someone like you?" Katya asked, mockingly. "You think he's impressed with you. Don't be dumb and come home. Remember. Mother Knows …... "

"NO!" The dark aura had fallen over Natasha again.

Natasha had had enough of being put down by her mother. People did like her. Kiku liked her. The men at the Curious Owl had liked her.

Alfred liked her. She was sure of that!

Katya did not like this rebellious streak that Natasha had suddenly developed. It had to be Roger's influence. Never mind! He would pay eventually but for now Katya had to make Natasha regret her decisions.

"It's like that, is it?" she sneered. "Natasha knows best. Such a mature, clever, grown up little lady, are you? Well if you're so sure about your new boyfriend, give him this." And she held up the satchel.

"Where did you …. ?" Katya pulled the crown from the satchel.

"This is what he really wants," she said, shaking the crown at Natasha and then threw it into her hands. "You shouldn't be deceived by him. Give him that and see what happens. I promise, he'll leave you just like that." Katya snapped her fingers.

"I won't even say I told you so," she continued, throwing the satchel at Natasha. "If you know better, put your dreamboat to the test. Don't come crying to me if he's lying to you. Remember! Mother Knows Best!" Katya turned on her heel and stalked off into the woods.

* * *

Natasha put the crown back in the satchel, wondering what she should do. She wanted to believe in Alfred but she had not known him very long. Could his dream of finding his family lead him to abandon her if he had the crown? She did not think so but dare she trust him?

"Hey," Alfred's voice came from the woods on the other side of the camp. "Can I, huh, ask something?" Natasha looked for a place to hide the satchel.

Alfred came back into the camp with his arms full of fallen branches he had collected.

"Am I gonna get super strength in my hand or something?" he asked. "Cause that would be totally cool." When Natasha just stood with her back to him without answering, he became worried.

"Are you okay?" he asked, concerned. Natasha turned and put a smile on her face that she hoped he would not recognise as false.

"Sorry," she replied. "Yes, I'm fine. I was just thinking." Alfred looked like he was about to question her answer but then he shrugged and let it go.

"Well, it's like this," he continued with a teasing expression on his face. "I was born with superhuman looks but superhuman strength? Can you imagine the possibilities?"

* * *

Watching from the woods, Allen and Alex moved forward to go after Rogers but Katya held her hand to indicate they stop.

"Patience, boys," she advised. If her plan worked, Rogers would be out of her hair and Natasha would have a bad memory of the outside world that would drive her back to the tower and keep her there for good.

"All good things to those who wait!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next : Arthur gets a solid lead on Alfred and Steve and Natasha celebrate her birthday....


	7. Happy Birthday!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flying Mint Bunny has good news for Arthur and Francis while Alfred gives Natasha the best birthday....

_ _ **Chapter 7 ** _ _ ** _ **: ** _ ** _ _ **Happy Birthday!** _ _

  
  


Francis was asleep but Arthur was unable to find the oblivion of slumber as he lay awake, looking out of the bedroom window of their rooms in the palace, into the night sky. Somewhere, Alfred was out there and Arthur's only lead depended on finding two criminals with vicious reputations who had been in the palace in the last twenty-four hours, stealing the Crown of the Missing Princess. Why had his son suddenly disappeared from their company? Was there something sinister behind it?

"You should be asleep, mon chère," Francis muttered, drowsily and kissed his shoulder.

"I was so close," Arthur replied, quietly. "I was just hours away from the Jones Brothers. A chance to find Alfred, lost!"

"They can't have gotten far," Francis reassured him. "The entire Italian Army is looking for them and they'll get them soon. Ludwig and Feli said you can interrogate them when they catch them."

"I'm afraid of what I'll find out," Arthur admitted. "These men are hardened criminals. How have they influenced Alfred? Have they done something to Alfred and that's why I can't find any sign of him? They're no strangers to violence, what if they've ki …. ?"

"Stop that!" Francis ordered. "You told me you'd know if anything bad happened to either of our boys."

"I never knew about Matthew, did I?" Arthur pointed out.

"You mean when Ivan held him at his castle," Francis replied. "Strictly speaking, Matthew was never in any danger from Ivan. He only wanted to keep Matthew with him because Matthew was the key to breaking his curse. It worked out for the best in the end."

Matthew and King Ivan had married three years earlier and after Ivan was restored to his throne, Matthew became the Prince Consort of the Russias and was very happy with his Russian husband. They had adopted Raivis and made him their heir. The Fae had offered the same gift they had given to the Italian Princes but Ivan did not want to risk Matthew suffering the same thing Feli had.

"I suppose you're right," Arthur conceded.

"Now," Francis said, pulling Arthur back against his chest (Arthur always magicked his wings away to sleep). "Look into your heart! What does it tell you?" Arthur closed his eyes and looked within.

"That Alfred is alive," he replied, resolutely.

"Then he is," Francis replied. "Hold on to that. We'll find him, Arthur!" Arthur smiled, softly as they both looked out at the dawn that was just beginning to break.

The view was obscured by Flying Mint Bunny as he flew up to the window.

Arthur got out of bed and opened the window for him and Francis sat up in bed as Flying Mint Bunny flew around the room.

"I've seen him, Arthur!" he squeaked. "I've seen Alfred!" Arthur felt a surge of hope.

"You're sure?" he asked, excitedly.

"Positive," Flying Mint Bunny replied. "I'd know his aura anywhere and he had the cowlick."

Francis looked back and forth between Arthur and Flying Mint Bunny as he could not understand Flying Mint Bunny.

"What's he saying, mon chère?" he asked.

"He's found Alfred!"

* * *

_ " _ _ _ Are you leaving us, Dad?" _ _

_ _ Alfred looked up at the blonde man with green eyes and huge eyebrows that seemed to tower over him. By Alfred's side was another boy who looked like him but with violet eyes and longer hair that had a wayward strand that stuck out and curled down between his eyes. Behind them was another man, also with blonde hair, blue eyes and a stubbly beard. Alfred was holding a rabbit while the other boy was holding what looked like a polar bear cub. _ _

_ _ The man with the eyebrows, his 'Dad', knelt down and Alfred could see his green wings coming out of his back. The man put a hand on both his and the other boy's cheeks. _ _

_ " _ _ _ That's why I'm sending you forward in time," the man replied, gently. "So you won't know I'm gone. There's a bad sorceress after a little baby. He needs protection." _ _

_ " _ _ _ So you're going to be a hero?" Alfred loved heroes. He wanted to be one himself when he grew up. The man smiled at him. _ _

_ " _ _ _ You could say that," he replied. "But this baby will be in danger for a long time. But I promise I'll be waiting for you when you arrive." _ _

_ _ Both Alfred and the other boy hugged the winged man. Then the man stood up and he and the other blonde kissed and then parted. _ _

_ " _ _ _ Nous revenir, mon coeur!" the other man said in French. Alfred translated it to mean 'Come back to us, my heart!' _ _

_ " _ _ _ I will," the winged man replied and kissed Alfred and the other boy on their heads. _ _

_ _ Then he directed them to stand in the centre of the intricate circle he had drawn on the ground while he lit candles that stood around the edge and told them to hold hands and not let go! Alfred shifted the rabbit on to one arm while he took the other man's hand. Then the winged man pulled out a slender baton and began chanting so low, Alfred could not hear what he was saying and the circle began to glow. _ _

_ _ The rabbit leapt from Alfred's arm and bolted.  _ _

_ " _ _ _ LIBBY!" he cried and let go of the man's hand to give chase. _ _

_ " _ _ _ No! Alfred!" the winged man shouted as he grabbed Alfred and pushed him back to the circle. "Take hold of your father's hand. NOW!" _ _

_ _ Alfred ran back to the circle, knowing that the winged man would take care of his pet and reached out to take the other man's hand. He was just inside the circle and almost within touching distance of the Frenchman when the spell reached its peak. _ _

_ _ There was a flash of light and then darkness surrounded Alfred. Then he felt something wet hit his cheek. _ _

Alfred opened his eyes. Never had his dreams been so detailed before. He was sure the violet-eyed boy was his brother and the two men had to be his fathers. He had two fathers? And did one of them really have wings?

Another wet splat hit his cheek and he heard a growl. He looked up at Berlitz's drooling, sharp-toothed muzzle, snarling down at him.

"Ah!" was all he could say.

* * *

"ARRRRRGH!"

The agonised cry woke Natasha and Kiku from a pleasant sleep to the spectacle of Alfred being pulled around by his boot by the German Shepherd from the quarry. Alfred was desperately grabbing the ground, trying to stop himself from being dragged away and Natasha got up and ran to Alfred, grabbing his hands and pulling him back as Alfred became the rope in an impromptu Tug-o-War.

"Let him go!" Natasha demanded as Berlitz pulled harder. Suddenly Alfred's boot parted company with his foot and he and Natasha flew one way, Berlitz the other.

After landing Berlitz shook himself and then, boot still in his mouth, lunged at Alfred who was backing up against a big tree. Natasha jumped in his path and he tried to move around her but Natasha moved to continuously block his way.

"Easy!" she said, trying to calm the irate dog down. "Take it easy!"

Berlitz was ready to knock the young female human out of the way when her scent tickled his nose and suddenly he remembered where he knew it from.

It was his childhood friend, his master's pup, after all this time. The thief momentarily forgotten, Berlitz jumped around Natasha like an eight week old puppy. Oh! His master and his mate were going to be so happy! He had to get her to the palace somehow, he could not wait to see his Master's face when Berlitz returned with his pup. Well, not quite a pup any more but still!

Natasha was confused at the dog, going from attack mode to this playful demeanour but she was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth but the dog bouncing around was making her dizzy.

"Now sit!" she commanded. Berlitz was confused. He usually only took orders from his Master and his mate but this was his master's offspring.

"Sit!" she ordered again and Berlitz obeyed. Natasha looked at Alfred's boot still dangling from his mouth.

"Now drop it!" Berlitz turned mulish. He was not doing the thief any favours.

"Drop it!"

Berlitz grumpily let the boot fall from his mouth.

"Oh! Good boy!" she praised, scratching Berlitz behind the ears which, like all dogs, he really enjoyed. "Are you tired from chasing the naughty man all over the place?"

"Hey!" Alfred said, indignantly. "I'm right here, ya know!"

"Nobody really appreciates what you do," she sympathised. "Do they?" And she hugged Berlitz.

"Oh! Come on!" Alfred could not believe what he was seeing. "He's a bad dog!"

"No, he isn't," Natasha replied. "He's a big sweetheart, aren't you …..?" She looked down at his collar and saw his name tag.

"Berlitz!" Berlitz licked Natasha's face and she rubbed his side, causing his leg to do that funny kicking thing.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Alfred muttered. First the thugs at the Curious Owl now this dog! Did this girl have this effect on everyone she met?

Berlitz snorted and turned his disgruntled expression on Alfred. He was still after Alfred and Natasha had to make some kind of deal with the dog.

"Look!" she explained. "This is the biggest day of my life and, well, I need him not to get arrested."

Berlitz snorted again. Did his friend not realise how unhappy this thief had made her sires? Did she even remember them? She did not seem to remember him.

"Just for a day," she clarified. "Then you can chase each other all over the country as much as you want. Deal?"

Alfred nodded as strange as all this was. It would give him a chance to get away once this was all over. Berlitz huffed, not giving an inch.

"Did I mention that it's also my birthday," she added, coaxingly. Berlitz gave a doggy sigh which Natasha took as agreement. Berlitz decided that if he agreed, it might help to get his long, lost friend to the palace. He could deal with the thief later.

In the distance, the sound of bells were ringing and drew Natasha toward them. Behind her back, Alfred yelped as Berlitz gave him a little nip, just enough to hurt.

That would hold him for now!

* * *

Arthur stood in the woods by the ivy curtain with Francis as Flying Mint Bunny flew overhead.

"You're sure you saw Alfred here?" Arthur asked.

"Absolutely," the flying green rabbit replied. "He was with a girl with reaallly long hair." Arthur translated for Francis.

"Our little Alfred has a girlfriend!" Francis gushed. "Oh, l'amour!"

"Yes, sweet," Arthur commented, drily. "But which way did he go, Flying mint Bunny?"

"They followed the road," the rabbit replied. "This way." And they followed him as he showed them the route.

* * *

After a little while, they came across the Curious Owl. Arthur knew the place by its rather bad reputation as a meeting place for every thug and criminal in the area. He just hoped Alfred had not gone in there.

As they approached, a man came out. He had strawberry-blonde hair and blue, swirling eyes. He also wore pink and blue clothing but the most disturbing thing for Arthur was that the man bore a striking resemblance to himself. Except he did not grin like a demented Cheshire Cat.

"Well, hello, poppets!" the man greeted when he saw them. "Aren't you a cute couple! And I do like your little green bunny. I'm Oliver. Would you like a cupcake?" He produced a tray of the treats from God knows where and offered them. Arthur got the feeling that the cupcakes might not be good for his health.

"I'm Arthur," he replied. "And this is my husband, Francis. And no thank you! We have things to do." He slapped Francis's hand as he reached out to take a cupcake.

"Oh well!" Oliver replied, putting the cupcakes back from wherever he got them from. "Another time, perhaps."

"Yes, another time," Arthur replied, hoping he never met this individual again. He really unnerved him. "We're looking for our son, Alfred. You haven't seen him, have you."

"I'm sorry," the man apologised, politely. "We've had Steve Rogers, the Italian Army and a pair of tough-looking twins but no Alfred."

"Steve Rogers!" Arthur gasped. "Twins! Where did they go?"

"Oh!" Oliver grinned. "They escaped! Rogers and the long-haired girl he was with, then the twins. She was a nice girl! She would have made a lovely cupcake. Well, Cheerio!" Oliver went on his way.

"Well, that was creepy," Arthur commented but his mind was working. Flying Mint Bunny had said that Alfred was with a girl with very long hair and the strange man had said that Steve Rogers was with a girl with very long hair.....

"Did he just say she would have made a lovely cupcake?" Francis was suddenly glad Arthur had stopped him from taking the cupcake and was feeling a little ill at the thought.

"I'm trying not to dwell on it," Arthur replied. "But did you hear what he said? He said she had long hair and she was with Steve Rogers!" Francis connected the dots.

"That would mean …."

"That Steve Rogers and Alfred are one and the same!"

"And the entire Italian Army's after him," Francis gasped.

"So we have to find him first!"

And they headed into the Curious Owl.

* * *

They learnt nothing from the patrons of the Curious Owl, no one would tell the outsiders anything. Even a Veritas Spell would not work on so many people and he would not enchant one without the others interfering but he did, however, find a piece of fabric, a neck cloth, that was coated with Alfred's aura, confirming to Arthur that Alfred was, indeed, Steve Rogers.

Which meant their son was a wanted thief!

Arthur would deal with that later. Right now, he just wanted to find Alfred, safe and well, and now he had away of doing that.

They left the Curious Owl and went into the woods. When they were out of sight of the tavern, Arthur began to draw a circle in the soil.

"What are you doing, Arthur?" Francis asked.

"I'm going to perform a Locator Spell," Arthur replied.

"You're going to turn the cloth into a ball of light that'll lead us to Alfred," Flying Mint Bunny replied. Arthur nodded.

"It means we'll have to do things the slow way and follow it," he explained. "But, at this point, it's our only option." He put the cloth in the middle of the circle and took out his wand. He chanted something in a strange language and the cloth rose into the air, wrapped itself into a ball and began glowing. It became a bright ball of blue light and it began moving into the trees, following the tunnels under ground that had taken Alfred and Natasha to the quarry. The three companions followed the ball of light, hoping it would lead them to Alfred soon.

* * *

Natasha reached the bridge that spanned the River Tiber that flowed past into the city that she gazed at in awe and she looked back at Alfred and Berlitz with excitement.

"Come on!" she cried and began to make her way across the bridge. As Alfred stepped on to the bridge, he spotted a wanted poster of him with another badly drawn nose on the wall of the bridge. He pulled it off, screwed it up and threw it away. Berlitz took exception to the littering of his city, picked it up and nudged Alfred's hand with his nose. Alfred looked and saw the paper ball in Berlitz's mouth and the dog indicating that he should take it. Alfred shoved Berlitz's muzzle away, at which point Berlitz stood up on his hind legs, put his front legs on Alfred's shoulders and blew the paper ball into Alfred's face.

The two antagonists began wrestling and fighting until a sound made them look up to see Kiku, stood on top of Natasha's head with a disapproving look on his little furry face. Alfred and Berlitz began to behave, although they did bump and shove each other when Natasha and Kiku were not looking.

Natasha stood on the other side of the bridge, looking around her in excitement. There was a festival going on. It had become a tradition that they would celebrate the Missing Princess's birthday in the hopes it would call her back to them and the streets were decorated with flowers and bunting made up of the vertical green, white and red striped flag of Italy, the horizontal black, red and gold striped flag of Germania and red bordered gold flag with the crest of Spain. Interspersed in these flags was the new flag of the Triple Monarchy. The stripes of the Germanian flag showed between the stripes of the Italian flag with a fiery sun in the centre, bearing the Spanish crest. And the motto,  _ _ Tres terras sub sole _ _ _ ,  _ meaning  _ _ Three Lands under the Sun _ _ _ . _

People wandered around, happy and making general conversation. Traders sold their wares and merriment was in the air and Natasha could not wait to be apart of it. She stepped forward but jumped back in fright as she was almost run over by a horse and cart. She collided with what looked like a farmer's wife and apologised. Then she was pulled back as someone step on her hair and she fell against a rotund man and had to apologise again. And every time she tried to move someone else stepped on her hair and she yelped in pain.

Alfred saw the difficulty she was in and began gathering her hair from the other end as she began pulling it into her arms at hers. When they met in the centre, their arms were loaded with golden locks, Alfred looked around for some way to hold all that hair up because dragging it around loose and free was not a good idea in a city full of people.

Four little girls, who resembled each other enough to be sisters, sat by a fountain, braiding each other's hair. Perfect!

Alfred whistled and the little girls looked round, their faces lighting up when Alfred showed them all the hair in his arms. They immediately ran up and got to work.

And no one noticed the three shrouded figures, watching and waiting....

* * *

It took the girls an hour to braid all of Natasha's hair and, considering how much hair Natasha had, Alfred considered that good going, even if he had to hide from the passing guards in the meantime. When it was done, a huge braid, decorated with flowers, fell down Natasha's back. It still grazed the floor but at least it could not be stepped on. It made Natasha look beautiful and Kiku smiled at the adoring look on Alfred's face and Berlitz noticed too. He was not sure how he felt about his prey, liking his Master's offspring. Another thing to be dealt with later.

Alfred thanked the girls, who had enjoyed themselves very much, by buying them (or so he said) trinkets from a nearby stall before they moved deeper into the streets, looking at what the other vendors were selling and the splendour of the city. Alfred got Natasha a copy of the Triple Monarchy Flag from a boy and, as she held it up in the air to look at it, she had a sense that she had seen it before but she could not remember where.

She helped a group of children draw the sun symbol in pastel on the flagstones of the town square while Alfred got them both cupcakes and ate them as they hid from passing guards before going to the library where Alfred pulled out the latest book of maps so he could show Natasha what part of America he came from.

As they stood, waiting to buy some food, Natasha's attention was caught by a group of people, looking at a niche in a wall.

And that was when she saw the mosaic.

It was a picture of two men holding a baby, made up of lots of coloured stones. The tallest man was pale blonde with pale blue eyes with his arm around the smaller man with auburn hair with a left hand curl and amber eyes. Both wore crowns and both of them held a silvery blonde-haired baby with blue-purple eyes. She was mesmerised by the baby, like there was something she should know.

People had left tributes like flowers and offerings of fruits. Right now, a woman was sat down with a toddler on her lap while her older daughter placed a bunch of wild flowers on the shrine.

"It's for the Missing Princess," she explained to her little sister and Natasha looked up at the baby in the picture again. The baby's eyes were almost the same colour as hers.

Then she heard music being played nearby.

* * *

Alfred finished purchasing their food and turned to find Natasha was missing. He looked round and spotted her dancing by a group of musicians playing a merry tune for the crowd. She ran up to a little boy, took his hands and pulled him into a dance to the laughter of his parents. When she got him dancing, she pulled more people into the centre of the square and soon it was filled with people dancing.

Natasha motioned to Alfred to join the dance but he shook his head, he was not doing that. Berlitz decided that Alfred was when he butted him from behind into the crowd where a woman grabbed him and swept him into the dance. As the dance progressed, they exchanged partners, moving closer to each other.

As they passed, Alfred and Natasha tried to partner each other but they were grabbed by other people and whirled away from each other. Natasha spun round and round as the music got faster and Alfred managed to pull away from the person who had pulled him away. Just as they managed to make it into each other's arms, the music finished.

Everybody laughed and clapped. This had been the best birthday celebration so far and, if this did not bring the princess back, nothing would!

Natasha was overjoyed. She could not have wished for a better birthday!

Then a cry went up!

"TO THE BOATS!"

People made their way to the dock and everyone began to prepare for the Lantern Festival.

* * *

Alfred had managed to hire a boat and, after dropping a sack into the bottom, he helped Natasha into it and, while he unwrapped the ropes from the moorings, she took out the satchel that she had hidden under her skirt and hid it under the seat and put Kiku down on the seat beside her. Alfred jumped on board and pushed off, picking up the oars and rowing out into the river. Somehow they lost Berlitz and, when he ran on to the dock, the boat was too far away.

He had to get his master's offspring to the palace. When they came back, he was going to get her there.

With his teeth if he had to.

Alfred picked up the sack and threw it on to the dock. Cuts of meat fell out of it but Berlitz turned his nose up at it. After all, the man who gave them was a wanted thief.

"Chill!" Alfred called out. "I bought them."

That was different! Berlitz began to chow down.

"Most of them!" Alfred could not resist tweaking Berlitz's tail and he grinned when he heard Berlitz growl at him.

"Where are we going?" Natasha asked as the boat moved further into the river.

"This is the biggest day of your life, isn't it," Alfred replied. "Then you should have the best seat."

Alfred rowed them out to the middle of the river and they waited for the sun to go down. He was looking back at the city and the palace , waiting for twilight to fall when he heard Natasha sigh. He looked over at her melancholy expression.

"What's the matter?" he asked, gently. Natasha did not answer for a moment.

"I'm scared," she finally replied. Alfred was confused.

"Why?"

"I've been looking out of my window all my life," she explained. "Wondering what it would be like when I see the lanterns up close. What if it's not everything I dreamed it would be?"

Alfred knew differently. He had seen it before and the sight of all those lights, rising into the night sky was incredible to see.

"It will be," he reassured her. Natasha turned to him.

"What if it is?" she said. "What do I do then?"

"That's the best part," he replied. "You get to find a new dream!" Natasha smiled.

They turned and waited for the sun to set and the lanterns to fly.

* * *

Ludwig loved and hated this day in equal measure. A celebration of his daughter's birthday, proving she was not forgotten but it also reminded him of her absence from his and Feli's life. On this day, more than any other, he wondered where she was. Was she far away? Was she close by?

He hated not knowing.

The door opened and Feliciano came in. He knew how this day affected Ludwig, it affected him too but something was telling him that something was different. He had seen the celebrations in the city. Something made the people happier than normal and he was strangely optimistic this time.

He went to Ludwig and hugged his husband.

"I wished this day was over with," Ludwig said. Feli stepped out of the embrace and straightened the royal chains around Ludwig's shoulders.

"Ve~ I know," Feli replied. "But I think it'll be different this year. I just have a feeling this could be the last time we go through this." Ludwig smiled and caressed Feli's cheek.

"I wish I could believe that," he replied. "But after all this time..."

"Lovino, Princess Katyusha and King Ivan were missing for longer," Feli pointed out. "We found them and we'll find our little girl too. And Arthur's son, Alfred!" Ludwig did not want to kill Feli's optimism so he said nothing.

"They're waiting," Feli said, taking Ludwig's hand and pulling him to the balcony doors. On the balcony, a flying lantern waited on a table, tethered by ribbons. They each put a hand under the rim of the lantern and pulled it up. The ribbons fell away and the lantern began to rise into the sky.

That was the signal for the others as they lit their own lanterns in the town square, the streets and on the ships and prepared to launch them into the sky.

* * *

In the boat, Alfred had taken some of the flowers from Natasha's hair and held them in his hands as she took them, one by one, and laid them on the water. As she was watching them drift away, she saw something in the reflection in the water. She looked up and saw a single light floating above the city. She moved to the end of the boat to see better as it was joined by a swarm of them.

The moment Natasha had been waiting for all her life had arrived.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Katya and the Jones Brothers strike.....


	8. I See The Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur and Francis are on Alfred's trail while Natasha puts her faith in Alfred....but thinks she made a mistake....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Halloween, everybody!

** _ **Chapter 8 : I See The Light** _ **

  


To their surprise, Arthur, Francis and Flying Mint Bunny found themselves following the light back to the city. They could see its shadow in the distance, lightly lit up by the lanterns that were rising above the buildings and following the wind across the river.

"Why would he go back to the city with the entire guard trying to catch him?" Francis asked. "Could it be something to do with the girl?"

"Who knows!" Arthur replied. "But we need to find him before they do. But at least we know what he looks like now." He was holding one of the wanted posters of Alfred as Steve Rogers that he had pulled from one of the walls of the Curious Owl. Francis looked at it over Arthur's shoulder.

"You don't think Alfred's nose really looks like that, do you?" he asked, looking at the deformed-looking lump on the face in the drawing.

"No, it doesn't," Flying Mint Bunny squeaked. "He has a perfectly normal nose."

"No! I've met the man who draws these things," Arthur replied. "He can't draw noses to save his life. Anyway, we better move. I think our guide is getting agitated." Indeed, the ball of light seemed to be bouncing up and down, eager to be off. The trio began to move toward the city with the light leading the way.

* * *

Natasha stared into the sky as the lanterns followed the first, coming up from the streets of the city and the ships in the harbour. Lights danced in the sky as they floated above the river.

Natasha thought of all those days she watched from her window, years of looking at the lanterns from the distance. Outside looking in, never knowing how much she had been missing. She had been so blind.

Now she was here under a starry sky filled with flying lights and she could see that she was standing exactly where she should be. Out in the world.

She was now seeing the light and not just the lanterns.

It was like she had been in a fog and it was lifting. She looked up at a sky that looked new to her eyes now. It was clear and bright and, with the lanterns floating around them, warm. Natasha felt her world shift and she looked over to the man who had shown her all this. Yes, this was all Alfred, her hero.

Her love!

Kiku smiled as he watched Natasha come to that realisation. Yes, everything was going as planned.

When she looked over at Alfred, she saw him holding two lanterns and smiled. She would not only see the lanterns, she would participate.

But she wanted to do something first. Something to prove her trust in Alfred.

"I also have something for you," she said. She reached under the seat and pulled out the satchel. "I wanted to give you this before but I was scared."

Alfred stared at the satchel in her hands. The one thing he had been doing this for, the thing that could make it possible for him to achieve his dream, was not that important to him right now. It was strange that he should feel that way.

"But I'm not scared any more," she continued, holding the satchel out to him. "You know what I mean?" Alfred moved the lanterns to hold the edges in one hand, put his other hand on the satchel and pushed it back down on to her lap.

"I think so," he replied, softly, looking into her eyes, seeing the innocent trust there and decided he would never do anything to shatter that. He handed her one of the lanterns, lit them both and, together, they launched them into the sky.

As the two lanterns joined the others in the sky, Alfred thought about his life and all the time he had spent, chasing down his dream. He had lived years in a blur, searching and stealing so he could keep searching. A worthy dream, but he had been so consumed by it that he never saw things the way they were, that he had sacrificed everything for the dream and forgot to live.

Natasha, shining with excitement in the star and lantern light, was there showing what he should have always known. As a lantern bearing a sun symbol drifted toward them, a little too close to the water, Natasha put her fingertips under the edge and threw it back into the sky and it became crystal clear to Alfred about where he should go now.

He would still seek his family, that was always going to happen but now it wouldn't be a half life. It would be with Natasha by his side if he could persuade her not to return to the tower and go with him.

The man who loved her!

He had finally seen the light, the fog that clouded his vision had lifted and he saw the world with new eyes. His perception of the world had shifted now. It was warm and bright and clear. And it was because of Natasha.

As they drew closer to each other, Kiku's little squirrel body turned bright red and he averted his gaze to give them some privacy. Well, he did sneak a little glimpse. If only cameras had been invented!

Alfred raised his hand and pushed away a few stray strands of Natasha's hair and she was sure he was about to kiss her.

* * *

Alfred cupped Natasha's cheek and he leaned in close, ready to put his lips to hers and her eyes fluttered closed. As he was about to brush his lips against hers, he spotted something over her shoulder on the far bank of the river.

Two men holding a lamp and the light shone over them.

It was the Jones Twins.

* * *

Natasha opened her eyes as she felt Alfred withdraw. He had a strange look on his face as he looked over her shoulder. She looked round to see what he was looking at but saw nothing.

"Is everything all right?" she asked. For a moment he did not reply but then he seemed to come out of his trance. His eyes dropped to the satchel on the seat beside Natasha and then looked back up at her.

"Oh yeah!" Alfred said, a little too quickly. "Of course it is! It's just there's something I need to do. Okay?"

"Okay," Natasha replied, as Alfred took the oars and began to row to the river bank.

* * *

When Alfred saw the Jones Brothers, he knew he had to do something to get them off his back or they would follow him everywhere, threatening his new plan for his life and, even worse, could put Natasha at risk. The crown was the key.

He would give them the crown and then part company with them for good. He would get the money to find his family some other way. Right now, his priority was Natasha.

They reached the bank where Alfred knew Allen and Alex would be waiting.

* * *

Allen and Alex saw the boat rowing toward their side of the bank with the girl and grinned. The old woman was right. Rogers was coming to fobbed them off with the crown to make them go away while he waltzed off with the real prize. If what the woman told them was true, the crown was peanuts by comparison.

They and the old woman had followed the two of them around the city, knowing their every move and, when everyone moved to get ready to release the lanterns, they had seen Rogers and the girl head for the boats, the woman had told them to head for the other side of the river and to make themselves be seen at the right time and instructing them on what to do while she had disappeared, saying she had to make sure that everything went to plan.

So far, things had gone swimmingly.

* * *

The boat thumped against the bank and Alfred jumped out to pull the boat ashore.

"I won't be long," he told Natasha, picking up the satchel. "It's just something I have to do. I'll be right back." Natasha eyed him and then the satchel and began to feel a little anxious.

"Okay!" she replied, wanting to trust Alfred as he gave her a reassuring smile and walked around the bend in the river bank. Kiku climbed onto Natasha's shoulder as he also watched Alfred walk away.

What was he doing?

Natasha turned her head to look at the little squirrel.

"It'll be all right, Kiku," she told him.

Kiku hoped she was correct.

* * *

Alfred went round a second bend to see Allen sitting on a rock by a sail boat, bobbing in the water, whittling a stick with a big knife but he could not see Alex anywhere. That made him a little nervous but he had to do this for Natasha.

"Ah! There you are!" he called out in an exaggerated happy tone. "I've been looking for you everywhere." Allen continued to cut the stick with the knife and eyed Alfred, calculatingly.

"I've been worried since we got separated," Alfred continued. "Well, any way, I shouldn't have run out on ya so here's the crown." He threw the satchel to Allen, the crown falling from it at Allen's feet.

"It's all yours," he said, stepping backwards from Allen. "I'm gonna miss you and Alex but I think this is ….." He bumped into something behind him, turned and saw Alex.

" ….. best!" he finished, lamely.

"Cutting us out again, Rogers?" Allen asked.

"What?" What could Allen be talking about?

"We heard you found something far more valuable than a mere crown," he said, standing up and walking toward Alfred, kicking the crown as he did. "We want the long-haired girl instead!"

Why did they want Natasha? No! They could not know about that!

His last thought was of Natasha before a blow to the head from Alex sent him crashing into darkness.

* * *

Natasha still stood by the boat, waiting for Alfred to return. He seemed to be gone for quite some time and Natasha was becoming nervous. A mist had begun to drift over the water and up the bank, making it difficult to see if Alfred was coming.

Then she saw a man's silhouette coming toward her in the mist and sighed in relief.

"Ah!" she laughed and admitted. "I was beginning to think you'd left me and taken the crown with you."

The shadow split and became two silhouettes and Natasha's eyes widened as two identical, dark-haired men came into view, one missing a tooth and the other had a broken nose. Alfred was nowhere in sight.

"He did!" one of them said.

"What!" she gasped. "No! He wouldn't do that to me!" On her shoulder, Kiku tried to figure out how things had gone so wrong. The other man pointed out into the river.

"See for yourself!"

Natasha followed his finger and saw a sail boat drifting out into the river with Alfred at the wheel, the crown in his hand.

This was not happening! He could not leave her like this! Where was he going?

"ALFRED!" she shouted. Alfred did not respond and continued to sail away.

"I say we got the better end of the deal, don't you, Alex?" Allen commented. "The crown for the girl with the magic hair! How much do you think someone will give to stay young and healthy forever?" How could Alfred have told them about that? He did not even know that her hair could reverse age, did he? Only that her hair glowed and healed injuries. Or had he somehow found out?

"Quite a bit, I'd say," Alex replied, pulling out a sack and advancing on Natasha, threateningly.

"NO!" Natasha turned and ran with the Jones Twins in pursuit. She ran around a bend and leapt over a fallen tree and tried to gain distance but she was suddenly pulled backwards by her hair as the braid caught on a branch and she desperately tried to pull it loose.

Suddenly there were the sound of two thuds, two cries of pain and two sounds of bodies hitting the ground.

"Natasha!"

The sound of her mother's voice stopped her struggling and she was able to take the time to untangle her hair from the tree then she went back round the bend.

Katya was stood over the unconscious twins with a hefty stick in her hands. Natasha noticed her mother was now looking older, half of her hair was grey and her face was looking more haggard.

"Mother!" Katya dropped the stick and held out her arms to Natasha.

"My little girl!"

"MOTHER!" Natasha cried and ran into her arms. Katya wrapped her arms around Natasha and smiled, feeling the sobs that racked Natasha's body. Yes, this was working perfectly.

"Are you hurt?" Katya asked, faking concern. "I was so worried about you. So I followed you and saw them attack you." Katya began to pull Natasha away.

"Let's go before they wake up," she said. Natasha stopped and looked back at the sail boat heading back to the city dock. How could he do that to her? Then she turned back to her mother who held her arms open to her again. Natasha's eyes filled with tears and she ran into the open arms.

"You were right!" she sobbed. "You were right about everything!" Katya smiled. She had shattered Natasha's faith in Rogers and soon he would be permanently out of the picture, the guards she had already alerted would come get the Jones Brothers in a few minutes so they had to leave before they arrive and then all would be well again as Natasha now had a reason to fear the outside world.

"Let's go home!" she said. This time, she would make sure Natasha never left as she led her away, sobbing.

“There, there,” Katya cooed. “Why don't you cheer us both up and sing me our special song...”

* * *

The light took Arthur, Francis and Flying Mint Bunny all over the city, following Alfred's trail like a blood-hound, finally taking them down to the dock.

"What on earth has he been doing?" Francis panted. "We've been all over this city."

"When we find him, you can ask him," Arthur answered. "Right now, I just want to find him."

The light floated out over the river so Arthur cast a Levitation Spell on Francis and, together with Flying Mint Bunny, they flew after the ball of light, not seeing the sail boat drift by in the distance.

* * *

The guards by the dock were suddenly alerted to the presence of the sail boat when it collided with the docking pier. The collision also woke Alfred from his unconscious state to find he had a headache, he was tied to the mast and his hands were tied to the helm wheel with the crown wrapped in the ropes.

The next thing he knew, soldiers were swarming the boat and dragging him to the palace to face justice from Kings Ludwig and Feliciano.

* * *

Berlitz was pacing the dock, waiting for his Master's offspring and the thief to return, when he heard sounds of struggle coming from the pier. He padded round in time to see Alfred being dragged off by the guards and he was fighting and looking out toward the opposite bank of the river. There was no sign of his Master's offspring.

"NATASHA!"

Berlitz looked out over the river while Alfred was dragged away, still shouting Natasha's name, leading Berlitz to one conclusion.

His Master's offspring, Berlitz's childhood friend, was in danger.

* * *

Alfred had to wait a while before he was dragged before the two Kings. Feliciano was upset at the theft of his daughter's crown and Ludwig was enraged. Alfred was identified by the guard who saw him when he stole the crown so there was only ever one verdict.

"Guilty," Ludwig snapped, his emotions running high over the fact that this man had stolen the most precious thing he and Feli possessed. "I condemn you to hang in the morning."

Alfred should have been more concerned for his life but all he cared about at that moment was Natasha. If she could be saved...

"I don't care what happens to me," he begged. "But, please, Your Majesty! There's a young girl in danger from Allen and Alex Jones. You have to save her, she's an innocent!"

"We've already apprehended the Jones Brothers," Ludwig retorted. "There was no girl with them. Take him away!" The guards dragged Alfred out, insisting all the way that Natasha was in danger, and took him to the dungeons.

"Ve~ shouldn't we wait before executing him?" Feli asked. "Uncle Arthur might need him to find Alfred." Ludwig shook his head.

"He needs the Jones Brothers," he replied. "That's the only reason they don't hang with Rogers in the morning. Rogers came along after Alfred so he wouldn't know anything about him."

But Feliciano still looked unconvinced.

* * *

Luciano and Flavio Vargas returned to the castle to hear that Steve Rogers and the Jones Brothers had been caught and that Rogers was to die in the morning. Luciano was not sorry. Rogers had caused a lot of grief and trouble and Berlitz, King Ludwig's German Shepherd, was still missing.

He would look forward to escorting Rogers to the hangman in the morning.

* * *

The guiding light took the trio around the opposite river bank and then began to float back over the river.

"You're joking!" Arthur huffed. "What's the lad doing?" He raised his wand to levitate Francis again when he suddenly swayed and would have collapsed, had Francis not caught him.

"You've had no rest and used too much magic," he scolded. Fae needed to recharge like everyone else or collapse with exhaustion and Arthur had just about reached his limit.

"We'll rest for the night," Francis ordered. "Then start again in the morning."

So they settled down for the night, not realising that Alfred languished in a cell on the other side of the river with a death sentence hanging over his head.

* * *

Alfred did not sleep at all. He could not. It was not the thought of his impending death that kept him awake, he was strangely sanguine about that, although he regretted the fact that he would never find his family. No, it was the idea that Natasha was out there, alone and at risk while he was stuck in this cell, unable to do anything about it.

The sun had been up for a couple of hours now while he paced his cell, trying to think of a way to escape to help Natasha or, at least, get some help to her but no one believed she existed and the guards were keeping a close eye on him.

As Alfred looked out of the window in the direction of Natasha's tower, there was the sound of his cell door being opened. He turned and saw Captain Vargas standing there, holding shackles.

"Let's go!"

Alfred's time had run out!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next : The race is on to save Alfred...and Natasha


	9. To The Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The race is on to save Natasha....but will Alfred be in time?....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Is Gonna Hurt belongs to Sixx AM

** **Chapter 9 : To The Rescue** **

  
  


Alfred was led through the dungeons towards his doom, still thinking about escaping to save Natasha, even as the shackle chains clinked around his wrists. As they passed a cell, Alfred caught sight of the Jones Twins, languishing within and he wondered how had they known that there was anything special about Natasha? Alfred had said nothing and Natasha certainly would not so how did they find out?

Taking the guards by surprise, Alfred slammed into them on either side, dove at the cell and grabbed Allen Jones, pulling him against the bars. Allen was shocked at the force Alfred used on him as Alfred did not usually use violence but the Alfred he faced now was determined with nothing left to lose.

"HOW DID YOU KNOW ABOUT HER?" Alfred yelled into Allen's face. "WHAT DID YOU DO WITH HER?" Alfred actually scared Allen as he shouted into his face. Even Alex was taken aback.

"We didn't do anything with her," Allen confessed. "She disappeared while we were unconscious and the old lady told us about her hair." Alfred got the feeling that, for once, Allen was telling the truth. The old lady! Only three people had known about Natasha's hair. Natasha, himself.....

And her mother!

Alfred knew it! After hearing about Natasha's life, he suspected that her mother was not over-protective, she was possessive, wanting to keep Natasha's ability for herself. If he did not save Natasha, she would spend the rest of her life in that tower, her spirit wasting away.

The soldiers grabbed him from behind but he was not going to go quietly. He would struggle with the guards all the way.

He had to save Natasha!

* * *

Arthur had finally awoken. If a Fae sleeps after becoming exhausted, they will not wake up until they are ready to. The guide-light was bouncing around as if agitated about something and it was making Francis nervous. Flying Mint Bunny was restless too but Francis could not understand the little green rabbit and it was adding to his nerves so when Arthur woke up, he was anxious to be off.

"Arthur," he said, when Arthur had fully woken up. "Something's wrong with the light and something's wrong with Flying Mint Bunny too."

"It's the light, Arthur!" Flying Mint Bunny squeaked. "It's sensing something bad!"

"So am I!" Arthur replied, honestly. He was being besieged by the feeling that he needed to find Alfred quickly. "Let's get going!" Casting the Levitation Spell on Francis, they followed the light back across the river.

* * *

Natasha sat on her bed with her hands in her lap, in her room in the tower as Katya plucked the flowers in her hair and undid the braid so it once again lay around Natasha, unrestrained. As Katya dropped the last flower into the basket she had been putting them in, she sighed with satisfied relief.

"Now we can forget the whole wretched business ever happened," she said, picking up the basket. "You've just enough time to freshen up for dinner. I'm making Hazelnut Soup!"

Natasha did not respond. She just sat on her bed looking down at her lap. How could Alfred do that to her? She thought he liked her.

But then Mother had warned her he would do that!

Katya looked back at Natasha. She would never question Katya again, never think about leaving the tower again and, just to make sure of it, she decided to twist the knife.

"I tried to warn you about the outside world, Natasha," she said. "I tried very hard. The world is a dark, selfish and cruel place. It always seeks to destroy anything good. If it finds the slightest trace of sunshine and purity, it snuffs it out." She left the room, leaving Natasha to think about what she said.

Natasha did not move for a moment but continued to look at her hands while Kiku climbed out of her hair and rubbed his little face against her cheek in comfort. Then she opened her hands and smoothed out the cloth she had been holding, the Triple Monarchy flag that Alfred had bought her.

She lay back, Kiku jumping down to the bed, and held the flag above her head, toward the ceiling and walls she had done the paintings on. There was that odd feeling of recognition again, like she had seen this before. Had she done something like this in her paintings? She looked up at the murals but could not see anything like the flag in her art work. She looked at the flag again and then back at the paintings.

Then she saw it!

In the centre of a flower was the sun symbol. It was at the heart of a star, a group of people, its shape in the space in between. Natasha got off her bed and moved to the centre of her room as the sun shape appeared again and again in every painting and visions began to dance in her mind.

_ Something hung above her head that had things dangling down and she reached up to try and catch them. They hung from something circular and in the circle was a big, fiery sun. _

_ Two blurry figures stood over her, looking down at her, smiling. One was tall and capped with gold, the other, shorter one was topped with brown as they towered above her. Then she saw the mosaic in the Town Square of the two men and the baby. The baby with her hair and eyes. _

_ She saw herself in the mirror, putting the crown on her head and it fitting perfectly, like it was always meant to be there. _

_ Then she saw the two blurry figures again but this time they were not blurry. The tall figure figure was the golden-haired man from the mosaic and the shorter man was the auburn-haired one. They were looking down at her like she was the most precious thing in the world....which she was because she was their... _

Natasha became light-headed as she lost her balance, falling against her dressing table and making the articles on it rattle. The noise carried outside her room to Katya who began climb the stairs to Natasha's bedroom.

"Natasha, what are you doing up there?" she demanded. Natasha did not respond, she was still coming to terms with what she had just realised. If these two men were her family then who was Katya really?

"Are you all right?" Katya was worried that Natasha was hurt when she did not respond until Natasha burst out of her room and gripped the bannister.

"I'm the missing princess!" she whispered. Katya rolled her eyes at the murmuring.

"Natasha, stop mumbling!" she ordered. "You know I hate ….."

"I'M THE MISSING PRINCESS!"

Katya went pale. How had Natasha discovered that? Katya's reaction was not lost on Natasha.

"Did I mumble, Mother?" she demanded. "Or should I even call you that?!"

Katya paled even further. She could lose Natasha if Natasha believed what she was saying and there's was no way she would let that happen. She would need another magic fix soon so she had to persuade Natasha she was wrong before she lost control completely and Natasha would try to leave.

"Natasha, that's demented," she laughed. "Can you even hear what you're saying? Why would you ask a question like tha …. ?"

But Natasha was finally seeing through Katya's deception. The mother façade was falling away and the betrayal and lies were destroying all affection Natasha had for Katya as she realised her life, such as it had been, was a lie. She pushed Katya away.

"It was you!" she fumed. "I stayed imprisoned in this tower because of you." Katya had to think quickly.

"I did what I had to," she insisted. "To protect you!" But Natasha was not listening any more. This woman was a liar, a manipulator and, most importantly, not her mother. She pushed past Katya and stormed down the stairs.

"I've spent all my life, hiding away from people that would use me and my power," she said, angrily.

"Please, Natasha," Katya tried to get Natasha to listen.

"I SHOULD HAVE BEEN HIDING FROM YOU!" Natasha shouted, turning to glare at Katya, lost years away from her real family, lacing her voice with anger. Natasha turned away again and continued walking. She would leave now, find the two men from the mosaic and find out who she truly was.

"Where will you go?" Katya demanded. "Back to Rogers! He won't be there, you know!" Natasha stopped. Why was Katya bringing up Alfred? He had taken the crown and left her behind.

Hadn't he?

If her life was a lie, Alfred's betrayal could be too. Especially coming from Katya's lips.

"Alfred never told those two men back at the river about me or my hair,” Natasha realised and glared at her one-time mother. “And he never really left me, did he? What have you done to him?" Katya's face told everything about Alfred's supposed betrayal. Katya had set him up! Natasha did not know how but she was sure.

"Like it or not, Natasha,” Katya replied. “That man was a thief and he is being hung for his crimes, the fate of all criminals!"

Natasha's heart plummeted into her feet. Alfred was going to die! Because he got caught up with her and her hag of her moth... no, her prison warder! It was her fault! All her fault!

Katya could see what her words were doing to Natasha. If she could convince Natasha she had no one to help her out there, she might stop Natasha from leaving.

"It's all right," Katya cooed, in a soothing tone. She began stroking Natasha's hair. "I'm all you have and that's how it should be." But Natasha reached up and grabbed her wrist.

"No!" she said, adamantly. "You've lied about the world and you've lied about me. I will NEVER let you use my hair again." Katya pulled her wrist from Natasha's grip so fast, she stumbled into the upstanding mirror, causing it to fall and shatter, scattering pieces of mirror all over the floor. Katya turned to Natasha who turned away and headed for the trapdoor to the staircase out.

"Where will you go?" Katya demanded. "Who will you turn to?"

"My real home," Natasha replied, defiantly. "And my real family." She would go to the Curious Owl and ask for help from her new friends there. As she continued walking away from Katya, Katya's expression turned dark.

"You want me to be the bad guy," she muttered, following Natasha. "That works for me. I'm the bad guy!"

* * *

It was taking Luciano, Flavio and the other guards longer to move Alfred through the prison because whatever the other inmate had said to Alfred had made him uncooperative and he was fighting every inch of the way.

They left the cell area and went into the outer corridors but, as they reached the end, suddenly the door ahead of them shut and all the doors to the side of them slammed shut after it. Flavio and the other guards looked around in confusion at this sudden turn of events while Luciano banged on the door. The eye slot opened and a pair of pink and blue swirling eyes beneath a fringe of strawberry-blonde hair peered out.

"Hello, Loves," Oliver said. "Password!" Luciano gave him a strange look.

"What!"

"Wrong!" The eye slot slid shut. Luciano hammered on the door again. It opened to the same eyes.

"Password, poppets!" Behind Luciano, Sadik reached out from one of the doors and pulled one of the guards into the adjoining room. The other guard saw that but before he could call out a warning he was grabbed by Hercules from the other side. Andres reached down from the ceiling and grabbed Flavio and he disappeared into the rafters.

"Open up!"

"Nowhere near." The slot shut again. Luciano banged on the door again.

"OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!" he bellowed. The slot opened and a hand reached out and flicked Luciano on the nose.

"Stop swearing!" Oliver said, offended and the slot shut again. Luciano turned back to look at his brother and fellow soldiers to find they were not there. Alfred stood there alone in his hand shackles, giving him an innocent smile.

Suddenly Luciano's vision went dark as Oliver came quietly through the door and clobbered him with a skillet, something he picked up from Natasha. Alfred laughed as Sadik and Hercules joined them and Andres dropped down from the rafters as Sadik took the key to the shackles from Lovino's unconscious body and unlocked Alfred's restraints.

"Who knew frying pans had so many uses, right?"

There came the sound of something hitting the door behind them as more guards burst through and everybody ran. Alfred ran after Sadik and Hercules as the guards pursued them. The guards were gaining when Roland stepped out in front of them, playing a guitar.

"Get out of the way!" one of the soldiers ordered. Roland just strummed his guitar.

“_Well_, _Listen up! Listen up!_” he sang. “_There's a devil in the church. Got a bullet in the chamber and...._” He just down the corridor and the soldiers looked in the same direction, just in time to see blonde hair and violet eyes swing a strange crooked stick with a flat end at them before all their lights went out. Roland strummed one last cord.

"_This is gonna hurt!_"

* * *

Arthur, Francis and Flying Mint Bunny followed the light which, surprisingly took them back to the palace. They arrived at the gates just as Ludwig and Feliciano were leaving to get into their carriage.

"Ve~ Uncle Arthur!" Feliciano was surprised to see Arthur again so soon. "You're back again!" Arthur pointed to the light.

"I found something of Alfred's and used a Locator Spell on it," he explained. "It led us here." Ludwig and Feliciano looked confused.

"We know of no one who could be Alfred coming here," Ludwig replied. "But I have good news. We have the Jones Twins in custody so you can interrogate them now."

"Things have changed," Arthur revealed. "We're looking for Steve Rogers now." Feliciano turned to Ludwig with a confused look.

"We have him in custody too," Ludwig replied and he had a bad feeling about this. "What has he got to do with Alfred?"

"Steve Rogers IS Alfred," Arthur answered. Feliciano's hand shot to his mouth.

"VEEEEE~!" he gasped while Ludwig looked horrified. Arthur did not like the look of this.

"What wrong?"

"He's being executed this morning!" Ludwig replied, his face growing red.

"WHAT!"

"Oh, Mon Dieu!"

"I'm sorry, Arthur," Ludwig said, contritely "If I'd known who he was, I wouldn't have condemned him but he stole my daughter's crown and I was angry about it but it's not too late! We were going to the prison to oversee the execution and they won't start without my presence so I can pardon him. Come on!"

As they moved toward the carriage, bells rang out from the prison.

"What's that?" Francis asked.

"A jailbreak!"

* * *

Alfred, Sadik and Hercules burst out into the prison courtyard to the sight of guards pouring from the ramparts and down from the wall walkways, blocking any way out. Sadik went back into the prison while Hercules pushed Alfred toward a cart that was sitting in the courtyard. Hercules pushed him on to the end that was resting on the floor and began to give him orders.

"Head down!" Alfred bowed his head.

"Arms in!" He pulled his arms tight by his sides.

"Brace yourself!" What! Why?

"Why brace myse...?" Sadik had made his way to the upper floor and jumped. He landed on the other side of the cart, catapulting Alfred into the air and Alfred screamed as he flew through the sky and over the prison wall where Alfred continued to scream, expecting to hit stone as he began to descend. The landing took him by surprise as he fell into a big pile of hay, set aside for passing livestock in the market square. It was a hard landing but there was just enough hay to save Alfred from injury.

Alfred slowly opened his eyes as he realised he had landed in one piece, and not as a splat on the flag stones, to see Berlitz looking at him from a few feet away by a saddled horse. Alfred struggled out of the hay and approached the German Shepherd.

"You brought them to help me!" he said in shock. If it was possible for a dog to look smug, Berlitz managed it.

"Thank you!" Alfred was still stunned that Berlitz would do anything to help him. "No, really! I mean, all this time we've been fighting, I guess we've just been..." Why was this stupid human rattling off like that? Has he forgotten that there is someone he needs to save? Alfred watched Berlitz give him a 'can we do this later?' look and nodded his head.

"You're right," he commented, picking up on what the dog was trying to tell him. "Not the time for this." He mounted up on the horse and took off as the guards burst from the prison in pursuit, Berlitz by his side. Townspeople leapt out of the way as Alfred raced through the streets toward the bridge, leaving the guards behind. People stared at the man on horseback, followed by King Ludwig's big German Shepherd, speeding across the bridge and toward the woods.

* * *

Luciano and the others regained consciousness just as Kings Ludwig and Feliciano arrived at the prison with their guests in tow. He was ashamed of his failure to ensure Rogers got the punishment he had coming to him and letting him escape.

"I'm sorry, Your Majesties," he bowed his head in shame. "Rogers escaped but I'll find him and this time I'll make sure he pays."

"The execution is cancelled, Captain," Ludwig ordered. "Rogers will be brought back, unarmed by his father. Not the guard!

"Sire!" After wanting Rogers brought in and executed, what had caused such a turn around? Ludwig turned to Arthur.

"Can you still find him?" he asked. Arthur pointed to the light that was hovering above his head.

"This light will lead us straight to Alfred," he replied. Luciano frowned. Who was Alfred?

"I wish you luck," Ludwig said. "Go find your son!"

"Ve~ Good luck, Uncle Arthur," Feli called as Arthur, Francis and Flying Mint Bunny turned to leave the prison.

Today they would get their son back.

* * *

Alfred galloped through the woods, following the path as far as he could, and then weaved in and out of the trees, making for the ivy-covered entrance to the tower's glade. He did not even dismount but rode straight through, Berlitz somehow keeping pace.

The horse rode through the stream as Alfred galloped up to the tower, the horse had not even properly stopped before Alfred leapt off his back. Not knowing about the unsealed door, he did not bother with it.

"Natasha! Sent your hair down so I can climb up!"

* * *

Katya froze as she heard Alfred's voice call up from the ground. Where did he come from? How was he even out of prison? He should be dead by now.

She knew he was not going to go away so she had to deal with him.

Once and for all!

* * *

Natasha's hair did not descend so Alfred began to climb, using the toe and hand holds he had used before. He was a third of the way up when the window opened and a swath of silvery blonde hair fell past him. He took hold of the hair and began to climb up the silken strands and climbed though the window when he reached it.

"Natasha!"

He saw her in the shadows. She was sat on the floor with her hands tied behind her back and was chained to the staircase with a gag enclosing her mouth and it was preventing her from trying to tell him something.

Then he sensed that they were not alone.

Before he could turn and see who was there, an agonising pain struck him in the side from behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next : Miraculous events take place.....


	10. Happily Ever After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A miracle, a reunion and a whole new story to tell.....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Final chapter...Please enjoy...

** _ **Chapter 10 : Happily Ever After** _ **

  
  


Alfred looked down and saw the tip of a blade protruding out of his torso, then it disappeared as the blade was pulled out, causing more pain. Katya smiled coldly as Alfred fell to the ground, Natasha screaming behind her gag. Katya just stepped over Alfred, ignoring him as she addressed Natasha.

"Look at what you've caused, Natasha," she accused. "But never mind! When he dies, our secret dies with him." Katya undid the chain from the staircase and began pulling Natasha toward the trapdoor while Natasha fought to reach Alfred.

"Now!" Katya said, pulling on the chain to take Natasha away. "We are going somewhere where you'll never be found again." Natasha pulled away from Katya, away from the trapdoor, fighting her former parent all the way.

Kiku ran over and took Katya's cloak in his little mouth and began pulling. For a little flying mammal, he had quite a strong pull and Katya felt it. She looked down and saw him trying to stop her and sneered. She did not know where he came from and she did not care as she laughed at his efforts and kicked him away. He hit the wall near the fallen broken mirror and lay on the floor, injured. Katya continued to struggle to get Natasha to the trapdoor while Natasha tried to get away and to get to Alfred. Despite his critical wound, Alfred was trying to get to Natasha, crawling across the floor but he was losing blood fast.

"Natasha, stop it!" Katya ordered, grabbing Natasha's arms and pulling her back against her. "Enough! Just stop fighting!" Natasha pulled away and fell to the floor, the gag coming loose from her mouth.

"NEVER!" she shouted. "I'll never stop fighting you. For every minute of the rest of my life, I will fight you. I'll never stop trying to leave." Natasha looked back at Alfred and made a decision.

"But if you just let me save him," she continued. "I won't fight you any more. I'll go with you willingly, no argument!" Alfred groaned.

"No, Natasha!" he begged. "Don't!" Kiku struggled to his feet as Alfred tried to crawl past him to stop Natasha from making this hideous deal.

"I won't try to leave again," Natasha vowed. "I won't run. We'll be together, just the way you want it. We'll go back to the way things were. I promise! Just let me heal him!"

Kiku wanted to stop Natasha from talking. She did not make promises lightly and kept all the ones she did make. And Natasha stuck with Katya was not suppose to happen. Katya knew all about Natasha's code of ethics when making promises. She did not have one herself but she would allow Natasha to heal Rogers to ensure she would stay by her side.

Then she would come back later and kill him. After all, he knew too much!

* * *

Katya removed the chains from Natasha and used them to shackle Alfred by his wrist to the staircase, uncaring of his injury and causing more agony.

"Can't have you following us now, can we?" Katya mocked. _Or getting away before I can dispose of you_, she finished in her head. She stepped away, clearing the way for Natasha but not before pushing him hard against the bannister of the staircase, causing him to cry out in pain.

"Alfred!" Natasha ran to him as he lay against the bannister and examined his wound as he tried to catch his breath again. She pulled away his clothes from the blood-covered injury and he gasped as it hurt him.

"I'm sorry, Alfred," she apologised. "But it'll be all right!" She gathered some of her hair and went to put it over the wound but Alfred pushed it away.

"I'm not letting you do this!" he gasped.

"I'm not letting you die, Alfred," she replied. "I can't live with that!"

"If you do this, you'll die," Alfred said. And he believed she would. Not physically but being trapped with Katya would eventually erode her soul until she was a shell, her spirit wasted and drained. Besides, he knew Katya was not going to let him live. Once Natasha was out of the way, she would return to finish him off.

He had seen it in her eyes.

"It'll be fine," Natasha lied. Alfred just smiled at the thought that she thought he believed that. Natasha put her hair over his wound. She took a breath ready to sing.

Alfred's left hand found a big piece of the broken mirror and he silently picked it up. He might not live to fulfil his dream of finding his family but he would fulfil another one.

If he had to die, it would be as a hero, saving the damsel.

"Natasha," he whispered. "Wait!"

His right hand came up to stroke her hair. He started at the top of her head, travelling past her ear and down to the nape of her neck, gathering all of her hair in his hand.

Then, using the last of his strength, he brought the mirror shard up and dragged it underneath her hair.

The silvery strands snapped one by one against the sharp edge of the shard that was cutting into Alfred's hand but he did not stop. He was dying, so what did another cut matter and he dropped the shard when the last strand was cut. Natasha's hair began to change colour, becoming auburn and a strand, no longer held down by the weight of length, sprang into a curl on the left side of her head. She grabbed the sides of her head, as if that would stop her hair becoming short while the detached hair began to turn to auburn as well, much to Katya's horror.

"NO!" she screamed as her fountain of youth lost its power and she tried to gather the hair that was still silvery blonde as if that would stop the power draining away but once the power drained, it began to suck the magic from Katya. She spotted herself in the broken mirror shards on the floor and saw her face begin to age rapidly and she looked at her hands. They wrinkled and the skin turned leathery and liver-spotted. She began screaming and pulled her cloak over her head to hide the ageing as if that would stop it and staggered toward the window.

Kiku had recovered from Katya's kick, grabbed some of the now auburn hair in his mouth and pulled it across like a rope. As Katya stumbled backward, her foot hit the hair and she fell through the window. She screamed as she fell.

Suddenly, her downward plunge was halted and the air round her took on a faint tinge of blue. She looked up and saw a lot of little faces looking down at her. The faces were attached to little heads and little bodies with little wings.

"Is this the one Pastaaddict told us about?" asked a little pixie in green and lilac with lilac wings. She had blue eyes and brown hair with blonde on the ends. She sounded ….. annoyed.

Pastaaddict! Katya thought. Who was Pastaaddict? (Btw, Pastaaddict is standing behind the fourth wall, grinning like 2p! England)

"I believe it is, " an auburn-haired pixie with orangey eyes replied with a sassy tone. She wore a bright-coloured dress and had rich brown wings. Judging by the puff of smoke she blew out, she might have been as annoyed as the first pixie.

"Oh dear!" another pixie in a light blue dress that matched her eyes and wings, exclaimed. She had long blonde hair that reached the back of her knees. She had little glasses perched on her little nose and carried a little book. "She's growing older. She'll die soon of old age."

"Oh! We can't have that," a pixie with untameable, short black hair and hazel-brown eyes that were slightly slanted, replied. She wore a dark-purple and forest green dress that was shredded deliberately to look, well, shredded and she had purple wings that were transparent. All the pixies placed a hand on Katya and she began glowing white. Her skin smoothed out and her hair regained its colour. Her youth had been restored and Katya could feel that this time, it was permanent. She could not believe it! She was young again. Young forever, just when she thought her life was over.

"That takes care of that," a little boy pixie, one of the only two males in the group, said. He had brown shaggy hair that would blend in with tree bark and eyes of bright turquoise. He wore light blue trousers and a little blue sweater vest and he had small green wings. Now he sounded flustered. "What shall we do with her now?"

"I know of a new home for her," A little red-headed pixie replied. She had scarlet eyes and wore a little Victorian-style coat. She gave the appearance of being weak but that was deceptive and she was going to enjoy what they were about to do. She was usually nice, just not to bad people. "After all, Natasha won't welcome her now. I know someone'll take her in and I just might get a cup of tea when we go there. What do you think?" She was asking a pixie with rusty red hair and green eyes, wearing a dress that looked like it was made out of maple leaves and a crown of maple leaves in her hair who nodded.

"I know just who you're talking about," she agreed with a grin. "Yes, he'll be happy to give her a home.”

"Thank you!" Katya exclaimed, grateful for once in her life at the generosity of these little creatures. "Thank you so much!" A laugh suddenly sounded and another creature flew into her line of sight. A winged rabbit, the colour of chocolate with red eyes.

"You're thanking them!" he squealed. "Why are you thanking them? Trust me! They're not doing you a favour. This way, my little friends!"

Katya realised this was not the miracle rescue she thought it was and she began to scream as the pixies flew away with her through the trees.

* * *

Natasha stared in disbelief at the disappearance of her former mother. She was gone! Natasha was free but at what price? She looked toward Alfred who lay on the floor, his eyes closed. No! He could not be dead. Natasha picked his head up to hold in her lap as his breathing became shallow.

"Alfred!" she cried and he began to cough as he opened his eyes. "Stay with me, please!" She took his hand and placed it on her now short auburn hair.

"Flower, gleam and glow," she sobbed. "Let your power shine. Let the clock reverse. Bring back what once was mine." But her hair refused to glow.

"It's too late," Alfred gasped, breathing becoming difficult.

"It can't be," she denied. "I won't let it!"

"Natasha!" Alfred whispered. She stared into his eyes. "You were my new dream!"

"You _are_ mine," she replied, tears sliding down her face at her inability to heal him. Alfred smiled before his eyes fluttered shut and he slipped away.

His hand fell from her hair and his face fell to the side as his entire body went limp.

* * *

Out in the forest, Arthur, Francis and Flying Mint Bunny were still following the light when Arthur suddenly stopped. He felt cold. He felt death!

The light froze and dimmed. There was a flash of light and the light became Alfred's neck cloth again and fluttered to the ground. Arthur fell to his knees as a hollow feeling settled in his heart and he reached for the neck cloth. He clutched it to his heart and a sob escaped him. And another. And another.

"Mon chèr, what happened?" Francis hugged his Fae husband as Arthur shook his head, unable to speak. Francis looked up at Flying Mint Bunny to see the little rabbit was no longer flying but was on the ground with tears in his little eyes. Francis looked at the neck cloth that, just a minute ago, had been leading them to his son and drew the only conclusion.

"Not Alfred!" Francis did not want to believe it. "Not our son!"

He hugged Arthur tighter and cried with him.

* * *

Natasha caressed Alfred's dead cheek as more tears crawled down her face. Kiku watched them, thinking how this could have happened. This was not supposed to be like this. Alfred was the hero, he was not supposed to die!

"You, who has been hurt," she sang softly, not knowing why as it would do no good now. "Change the fate's design. Save what has been lost. Bring back what once was mine." She brought her forehead to Alfred's and cried harder.

"What once was mine," she finished, whispering. A sob, then another and another was wrenched from her and a tear fell from her eyes on to his cheek, containing the last of the magic.

She hugged him close and did not see the tear absorb into his skin and the imprint of a flower glowed on his cheek. She did not see anything until a light drew her attention. Tendrils of light grew from the stab wound in Alfred's side and curled in the air, spreading through the tower and wound around them both. Then a flower of light emerged from the injury, glowing with power. Then the light and the flower faded. The injury glowed for a second before that too faded.

Natasha gasped as Alfred took a breath and then another. And another. Then his eyes slowly opened.

Alfred looked up at Natasha with her newly-shorn, auburn hair and thought he had never seen anything so beautiful. But why was he alive? He had died, he knew he had but he had been having a strange dream where everyone called him America. How had he come back?

"Natasha!" he croaked.

"Alfred!" she gasped.

"Ya know something?" he asked, running his hand over her hair. "I prefer brunettes."

Natasha laughed and hugged him tight. Still hugging, Alfred sat up with Natasha on his lap. She pulled back and looked at him. He was alive! He was really alive! Natasha could hardly believe it but she was not going to question it either.

Grabbing his jacket she pulled him toward her and pressed her lips on his. Alfred put an arm around her back to hold her close and one hand into her hair to kiss her more firmly.

It was a while before they moved again.

* * *

Without the guiding light to find Alfred's body, the trio prepared to make their way back to the city, Arthur gathering his magic to transport them back when he suddenly felt happy. His son had just died, he had felt it but the hollow feeling was gone, along with the cold and it felt like something wonderful had just happened. Why did he feel this way when he should be grieving?

"What's wrong, mon chèr?" Francis asked at the confused look that Arthur wore.

"I don't know," Arthur replied. "I feel like …. " He looked in the direction they had been going in to find Alfred. Should they continue? But to where? And what good would it do?

"It's nothing," he said and they continued their journey

* * *

Berlitz ran beside them as Alfred and Natasha rode the horse back through the woods, talking about what to do now.

"Are you sure you're the missing princess?" he asked, finding it hard to believe although she had spent her entire life in that tower so that would explain why the princess was never found. He had only found the glade by accident himself.

"Moth … that woman's reaction confirmed it," Natasha replied. "She tried to deny it but the look on her face when I confronted her with it said it all."

"So she stole you to use you to stay young forever," that made sense to Alfred. There were some who would do that but Natasha was safe from that kind of attention forever since Alfred had more or less neutralised her power.

But something else concerned him. He wanted Natasha to come with him, help him find his family and be a part of his life but, if she was the missing princess, how could she do that? After all, a princess and a thief! He would never be allowed near her.

If they did not execute him first. He did steal her crown.

He thought about just taking her with him anyway and keeping her with him but that was selfish. It would make him no better than Katya and Natasha would always wonder about her true family, just like he always had and her fathers would always be waiting and hoping she would return. Alfred wondered if his fathers hoped the same about him!

There was no choice. Alfred would take her back and then …..

What then?

* * *

There was a melancholy mood in the royal chambers. Arthur and Francis had returned with the bad news that Arthur had sensed Alfred's death and, while Francis was visibly upset, Arthur seemed like he did not know how to feel about his son's death. He was the first of the missing not to be found safe and well and it cast a shadow over Feli and Ludwig's hopes of finding their little girl. Feliciano felt guilty for feeling this way when Uncle Arthur had just lost his son. After all, he and Ludwig still had some hope.

Ludwig was busy with the paperwork of affairs of state between the three kingdoms while Feliciano was painting when a Lieutenant burst through the door. Ludwig was ready to take him to task for such behaviour but the soldier cut him off before he could say anything.

"Your Majesties," he panted, breathlessly, indicating that he had ran to the chambers. "Come quickly! You need to see this!"

Surprised by the curious behaviour of the Lieutenant, they followed him through the passageways out to the balcony where they had released the lantern, only the night before. The table had been removed and a young man and a girl stood there. The girl caught their attention as she had Feli's hair and, as they continued to stare, they noticed other things about her. She had Ludwig's eyes although they were more purple than blue but they were the same shape. Feliciano's heart began to beat faster. He knew what he was thinking but dare he believe it?

Ludwig's gaze wandered over the girl who had his beloved Feliciano's hair and innocent gaze. Even the curl bounced at the left side of her head, just like Feli. Could it be?

When they had reached the city, Alfred had been surprised that the guards had not grabbed him the moment they saw him, like he had a royal pardon or something. He saw Captain Vargas but, other than a sour look, he made no move toward Alfred. He even managed to get into the palace. Legally this time.

Feli stepped toward the girl who warily took a step toward him. They kept slowly moving toward each other until they were inches apart.

Natasha gazed at the small man in front of her who was almost female in his movements and mannerisms. Amber eyes locked with her purple ones and looked deep into her, then he raised his hand and cupped her cheek. He gave what could only be described as a happy sob and she was swept into a hug.

"Vee~," the man said as he continued to hug her and then the golden-haired man came up to them. She looked at him and he smiled at her and then hugged both her and the auburn-haired man. They fell to their knees and continued to hug.

Feli was so happy! It was her! His beautiful little girl was back! Finally, after sixteen years, his baby was back in his arms and tears of joy ran down his face. Ludwig was too choked up to speak. His daughter, at long last, back where she belonged and he now held his complete family in his arms. He wept, unashamedly.

Natasha basked in the love of her true parents as they held her tightly. Katya had never held her like this, she realised. Katya only hugged her to placate, distract her or to keep her in line. Never had Katya hugged her so spontaneously as her auburn-haired mother/father was doing now. Alfred had explained the story behind how she had two fathers and how King Feliciano was actually her mother. She did not care. They were her parents, that was all that mattered.

Alfred watched the group and was very happy for Natasha but, at the same time, saddened because it meant Natasha was moving away from him. That he was losing her.

Then King Feliciano looked up at him.

Feli finally took a good look at the young man who had brought his daughter here and his eyes widened. He recognised the man from the numerous wanted posters he had seen of late. But Steve Rogers was Alfred Kirkland-Bonnefoy! Feliciano thought Uncle Arthur had told him that he felt Alfred die. How could Uncle Arthur have made such a mistake?

Whatever! It was him and he was alive! Uncle Arthur and Francis were going to be so happy.

Feli held out his hand to Alfred. Alfred did not move for a moment and then he put his hand in Feli's. He found himself being pulled into the family group, being hugged by Feli and hugging Natasha.

Feli called over a guard.

"Bring his Excellency and his husband to the throne room," he ordered. "Quickly!" The guard left to run his errand. They finally stood up and moved into the palace.

"I thank you for bringing our daughter back," Ludwig said as they walked into the throne room. "But I would like to know why you stole her crown?" Alfred blushed, lightly.

"Tell him, Alfred," Natasha urged. "He'll understand!"

"I wanted the money to find my family," he admitted. He told them everything. His first memory of waking in the street in New York, the orphanage, the dreams of his family and his absolute conviction that they were somewhere here in Italy. Feliciano smiled.

"Vee~," he said. "They may be closer than you think."

The throne room doors were opened and Arthur and Francis entered.

"You wanted to see us, Your Majes ….. " Arthur trailed off when he caught sight of the young man standing with the two kings and the auburn-haired girl. The blonde hair, the cowlick, the sky-blue eyes. Francis's eyes widened as he saw someone before him he never thought to see alive. His eyes filled as emotion overflowed.

"Alfred!" Arthur gasped. He had felt his son die but he was here! He was alive!

"Alfred!" he cried, his wings carrying him into the air and flying to Alfred to engulf him in an embrace. Alfred was taken by surprise by the slender man who seemed to leave the ground and fly toward him, tackling him with a hug. That was when he saw the wings and remembered the dream. Just as the winged man let him go, another man suddenly swept him up in a hug. A blonde man with a stubbly chin and tears in his blue eyes.

"Mon fils!" he wept. "Mon petit garçon!" Alfred translated as _M__y son! My little boy!_ A memory rose in his mind. Of his parents. Of his brother. What was his name?

"Dad?" he gasped. "Papa?" The two men hugged him again.

"Welcome home, son!"

"Matthew!" he blurted, finally remembering. "Where's Matthew?" Arthur smiled.

"He'll be here," he promised. "I'll see to it!" They hugged again and all of them cried.

Kiku stood on a window ledge and smiled. He had done everything he needed to. It was time to go!

* * *

A big celebration swept through the city and lasted a week, with everyone coming from far and wide. As promised, Arthur brought Matthew and his husband, King Ivan and Matthew hugged his brother for a full ten minutes before he said a word.

"I can't believe we've finally got you back," Matthew said, excitedly with happy tears in his eyes and hugged Alfred again. "I've missed you so much, Al!" Memories of Matthew assaulted Alfred. It surprised Alfred to learn that, despite being the first-born, he was now actually younger than Matthew and he remembered Mattie being quiet and shy. What had happened to make his brother so out-going and confident? Whatever! Alfred approved! Matthew introduced his husband and his adopted son, Raivis but there was a little personality clash between Alfred and Ivan but Alfred warmed to young Raivis.

King Gilbert and Queen Katyusha of Prussia came to meet their long lost niece, along with their son, Prince Frederick, as did Kings Lovino and Antonio with Prince Marcello as well as retired Kings Romulus and Wolfgang. The former Queen of Spain, Isabella also came to celebrate the recovery of the last of the missing. Lanterns flew again, this time for a happy reason.

Lukas and Vladimir arrived with their now husbands, the Danish Troll King, Matthias and the Bulgarian dragon shifter, Alexander. Lukas was trying to prevent Matthias from getting drunk as things get out of hand when he gets drunk. He did not get dangerous, he just did stupid things. Like right now, trying to get Alfred and Gilbert to celebrate by getting drunk with him.

Vladimir had it easier with Alexander who kept his dragon from coming out and scaring the townspeople, although he did partial shifts to amuse the children who like to see him bring out his wings.

The patrons of the Curious Owl that helped Alfred escape the prison had been captured but then pardoned when the reason for the escape became known. After all, how could Kings Ludwig and Feliciano punish them for helping to bring their daughter back to them.

Grand Duke of Austria, Roderich Edelstein and his wife, Elizaveta of the Hedervary Tribe, came with King Gilbert and Queen Katyusha and, after hearing his cousin play, Roderich took Roland under his wing, although Roland still refused to play classical. Out on the river, in a row boat, Andres and Flavio were enjoying a little romantic interlude. Despite their first meeting involving Andres grabbing Flavio and knocking him out, they began to like each other, which had led to courting and now they were a item.

The Royal Cook found a protégée in Sadik who took to cooking like a duck to water. There was one bad moment when he ran into King Lovino who remembered when Sadik robbed him in the woods in Spain. After some very choice AKA swear words, Lovino decided that in view of the occasion to let it go, not wanting to spoil the celebration.

Every woman (and a few men) were raving about the new romantic best selling book that had been published by new writer, Matt Williams, called  _ Fifty shades of Hetalia. _ Descriptions of the story are impossible as this is not a Rated M story but boy, was it popular!

Oliver opened a bakery called 'Oliver's Sweet Treats' but you ate anything from there at your own peril. He was taking some cupcakes out of the oven when he heard the door go and he went out into the front to see Flying Chocolate Bunny and some of his pixie friends there with a human woman with dark reddish hair who was wearing an obedience collar, a black leather strap, studded with black diamonds, infused with magic.

"Hello, Loves," Oliver said, brightly. "What brings you to my establishment?" Flying Chocolate Bunny smiled.

"We have a surprise for you, Oliver," he squeaked. The pixies pushed the woman forward.

"We have a new taste-tester for you, Oliver," a little Tinker bell type pixie in a little blue dress said, cheerfully. She had auburn hair like King Feliciano's and her wings matched her dress.

"Oh! Thank you, my little friends," Oliver clapped his hands in delight.

"And this one won't die like the others," another pixie, the other male one, added with a little laugh. He dressed in green and blue to match his eyes, that contained a slightly psychotic gleam, with dark-blonde hair. "Although she'll still feel the affects of your ….. special ingredients. And the collar means she'll do what ever you tell her to do."

"Is that right?" Oliver replied with a wide grin. "Well then, your timing is perfect. I've just taken a fresh batch of cupcakes out of the oven." He turned to a frightened looking Katya and beckoned with his finger.

"This way, poppet,” he sang, picking up a cupcake. “Open wi~ide!"

* * *

The Royal family stood to one side with their guests. Alfred stood with his family as everyone partied around them but Natasha was a little sad, Kiku had vanished and no one had seen him. It hurt to think she might never see her little friend again but then, maybe he had come for a reason and he had accomplished what he had set out to do. If that was the case, she wished him well but she would miss him.

But she consoled herself with the presence of Berlitz who now stuck by her side. He would be a constant companion to the new couple, even if he and Alfred did have the odd disagreement.

Matthew told Alfred everything that had happened in his life and Alfred did the same. Arthur, realising that Alfred did not remember everything, told him how he came to be lost to them for so long. Alfred could not help but think that, had none of it happened, he never would have met Natasha. Indeed, Natasha might never have existed and Alfred almost laughed at the irony of it all.

Natasha, wearing her crown, came up to him and his newly-discovered family, smiling.

"I don't think I've ever been so happy," she declared. Alfred smiled back at her.

"It's our happily ever after," he said. "But what do we do now?"

King Ivan went pale when Natasha replied.

"Marry me, marry me, marry me …..!"

* * *

Kiku watched the happy scene from a distance as he took his human form. He smiled softly and turned and walked toward a glowing portal. He walked into it and disappeared.

In a large cathedral-type room that contained shelves of books, Hercules stood, petting Lucifer as he waited by a pedestal holding an open book. The book began to glow and light poured from the pages and arched down to the floor. It faded and left Kiku in its wake.

"Was it a success?" Hercules asked as Lucifer gave a yawn.

"Hai!" Kiku replied as he turned and closed the book. On the cover in ornate italic writing was the title, _Hetalia Tales._ "It was a little close for a moment but everything is exactly how it's meant to be. Another Tale ended just the way it should."

The books were portals to other worlds where lives that we know as fairy tales really happened. It was Hercules and Kiku's task to make sure that these tales go exactly the way they should and they had many powers to help them in this task. Shape-shifting, transporting great distances in seconds. That was their calling as the Keepers of the Tales.

"That's our job, my love," Hercules replied, kissing Kiku on his forehead.

"This one has been a long journey," Kiku commented.

"True," Hercules agreed. "You warning the Fae about Natalya's minions. They never knew it was you who sent the information to Alexander in the first place."

"You sent Lovino back to Antonio leading to their first kiss," Kiku replied, with a soft smile.

"Everything you did for Katyusha to get her to the Ball!" Kiku eyed Lucifer, he still had a little bit of a grudge where Lucifer was concerned but Kiku had to admit Lucifer had improved under Hercules's guidance.

"Giving Matthew that book and warning Arthur about his disappearance," Kiku commented.

"Telling the Jones Brothers about the crown and setting Alfred on the road to finding Natasha!" Hercules replied. "All the things you did for Natasha. Do you think they'll ever realise that Natasha was Natalya reborn?"

"It's better that they don't," Kiku replied. "Natalya's darkness was not her fault. She deserves a second chance."

"Do you remember how it started?" Hercules asked, opening the book at the beginning. Kiku nodded.

"Arthur, Francis, the twins and the Dark Fae?" Kiku replied. "How could I forget?"

And they both turned and began to read the story!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's that but a new story is coming up. It's a prequel that's takes place a couple of years before Sleeping Beauty.   
So Next story : Bad Moon Rising.

**Author's Note:**

> Yep! It was Belarus! Her redemption starts here!  
Avengers fans should spot the reference...…..


End file.
